Sors Daemoniorum
by EpikalStorms
Summary: Harry Potter vanished off the face of the earth at the age of five. Eleven years later, the Dark Lord Voldemort makes an alliance with the Demon Realm, and Prince Damian arrives for the negotiations. There's something familiar about him, however, that nobody can put their finger on. *Bad Dumbles- Good, Teenage Voldy Tom- Adorable, Shy, Powerful Damian Harry*
1. Escape Away, and Meeting The Father

_**-:Prologue:-**_

There's only so much abuse and hurt a five year old can take. Especially if that child had given up on safety and hope a long time ago. Anyone would be sad to hear such things, they wouldn't want to believe it, really. They'd probably just brush it off, do their best to look in the other direction, and walk away—they don't want it to be their problem, their business. They don't want to hold the burden. Of trying to help the child.

In this case, that child's name—or what everyone seemed to _believe_ his name was—is Harry James Potter. Except... it's not. Anyone else would be confused, anyone else would ignore it. Anyone else wouldn't put themselves in a position to be blamed for all the horrible things that had happened to this _Harry Potter_. Apparently, the Dursleys were anything _but_ anyone else.

Poor, poor Harry Potter was beaten daily; starved, labored, neglected, ignored—and he was only _five years old_. But this seemed not to bother Vernon, Petunia, or even their own child, Dudley. And the neighbors turned blind eyes—and the rest of the people who had the unlucky misfortune to set eyes on the malnourished, skinny, underweight form of the child called Harry Potter turned blind eyes. Even those who were expected—_suppose—_to be looking out for the child, those who were believed to be concerned for his well being, turned blind eyes. They all turned blind eyes to the horrid life this one Harry Potter, this one _five-year-old_ child was subjected to—

These humans were truly despicable.

It finally—_finally—_came to a point where, frankly, this child called Harry Potter had had _enough_ of this horrendous fate.

_**-:End Prologue:-**_

_**:2:35 AM:**_

_**-No.4 Privet Drive, Uptown London, Great Britain, Human Realm-**_

He could practically smell the air of freedom as he silently slunk out the front door of Number 4 Privet Drive. No more cuts or bruises from that family's hands. No more pain, no more hurt. He'd no longer be smacked around; he wouldn't be thrown into walls, or stuck inside a dark, musty cupboard under the stairs whenever they were through with him. They wouldn't report him missing, anyway. Like they cared whether he was alive, or dead. Wherever he was, whatever happened to him, well good riddance—is what they'd believe.

He wasn't rightly prepared for the world, however. Who would be? He'd never been out there—as if the Dursley's would _dare _to take such a sight out in public with them. He didn't know how dirty, how tough, life on the streets would be. So he walked; for days; he hiked down dirt roads billowing with dust and sand. He ran down cobblestone alleyways and concrete stretches until finally—about time—he reached downtown London.

This is the part of the story most of our kind dub the End of The Child Known as Harry Potter. And, as everyone knows—or _should_ know, in the least—, with every end comes a new beginning. With Harry Potter's, or the child who was known as such, at least, end came the beginning of a child known as—

That's getting ahead of the story. Let's just start with Harry Potter's End.

As the child—Harry Potter, right now—slowly stumbled down the main street of London, he bumped into something tall, something solid, something much larger than he himself. And when he looked up, Harry Potter met the dark gray eyes of the man who would end his silly name.

"Oh!" The child coughed roughly, his face paling at the sight of the person he'd hit. "I-I'm sorry sir! I'm so sorry, I-I wasn't watching where I was-was going, and—"

The man laughed deeply, waving a black gloved hand dismissively—but his eyes were shielded, showing less mirth than he was expressing. They were sharp, and analyzing the child as he spoke. "No need, child! I was being quite careless myself..." He frowned, looking the young five-year-old over. "You seem... quite worse for wear..."

The child shifted uneasily, taking a small, almost unseen step backwards—but the man's sharp gaze caught his wariness. He recognized the signs, of course. "What is your name, young one?"

The child swallowed thickly. "Harry Potter, sir." He shifted once more. "D-Do I know you?"

"No," the man shook his head. "I don't suppose you'd recognize me now, but I knew your parents, and my lor—my _employer_," he stressed the word slightly,"—has been searching for you for quite some time now."

"What for?" The child—Harry, for now—tilted his head curiously. Someone knew his parents!

"Well, because you are his—heir." The man's shook his head. "I'd like to explain to you the details, child, but the story behind them is rather long. Why don't we go someplace else, where we can discus this matter further, over food perhaps? Richard knows you could use it." He cast a rather pointed look at the child's thin form.

"... Ok..." The child admonished, narrowing his eyes slightly as he gazed up at the man. "But no funny business. I can scream very _loud_." He warned. Food was indeed welcome...

The man nodded, slightly pitying in his gaze. Soon, child and adult walked side by side, entering the door of a rather secluded restaurant where even the child knew they wouldn't get very many strange looks.

"What's your name?" The child inquired, as they sat down. That was when the man took the time to look his new companion over fully. The child—Harry Potter, right now—wasn't very _dirty—_par say. His clothing was quite dusty, however. He wore a long sleeved dark green shirt under a gray sweatshirt that was a bit baggy. He was also dressed in nondescript dark blue jeans that gathered a bit at his ankles over five-year-old sized black boots. His black hair was dusty as well, and hung a bit limply in his bright green eyes. The man caught a glance of a faded lightning-shaped scar that ran right before the hairline on the right side of his forehead, and there was a smudge of dirt on his left cheek.

"I am Caden Lightbane." He answered, after a moment. The child was silent, but he nodded. Neither spoke for a while, even when the waitress brought over their orders. Finally, as the child—Harry—began to shovel down the food, the man—Caden—began his explanation.

"I am second in command to King Richard of the Demon Realm, the Commander of his Armies, and Court Advisor," He started, smiling when the child threw him a slightly disbelieving glance, then continuing. "In the that realm, which is where we both hail from, the Demon King is subjected to a slight curse, if you will. He cannot produce male heirs, only females, daughters. This has been true for every Demon King for many, many generations. As such, each Demon King, or Prince(which is what _you_ are, child) is half human, their mother's coming from the realm we are in now. Your mother was a witch, with magical blood, though she was unable to become pregnant by her husband. So the King proposed a deal. Your mother would be able to get a son, but the child would be part demon and later taught demon magic in our Realm. Your mother agreed to this proposal. You were born, and it was found out that, due to half your DNA coming from a witch, you are more powerful than other heirs to the Demon throne. Your real name, the one given to you by your true parents, is not Harry James Potter, but Prince Damian Conrad Voidsurfer." The child was surprised, eyes widening.

"You mean..." He began.

Caden nodded. "Yes. Harry Potter was a quick alias your stepfather, James, penned for your safety. You were originally supposed to keep this alias until my lord, King Richard sent for you to begin your training, but..." At this, Caden closed his eye and bowed his head slightly forward.

The child—no. Now this is the beginning we were speaking of before. This is now Prince Damian Voidsurfer. The child called Harry Potter is no more. Damian frowned nervously, apprehensive as to what was next to be told. "Why, what happened?"

Caden shook his head, sitting up, and continued on with his story. "Sadly, a year later your mother and her husband were murdered. Even today, we are unsure of the identity of their killer, and you were taken before we could intervene. Wizards believe it was Voldemort, the Dark Lord but we think it was someone else." Caden explained, happy to notice that, while the child before him still held an air of incredulity, his expression was one of acceptance an understanding. For a five-year-old, he was rather brilliant actually.

"So..." The child frowned, concentrating and trying to understand further. "You're a Demon, I'm half Demon, half Magical, and I, technically, still have a father?" He seemed bewildered by the sudden flood of information

Caden nodded. "Indeed." This boy had sharp wits, he'd give him that. "Would you like to meet him?"

Damian's eyes widened. "I-I can do that? I can see him?"

Caden smiled, sighing slightly. "But of course, my Prince. He is your father, no? In fact, I am sure he cannot wait a single moment more to meet _you_." With this Caden stood and, while Damian smiled happily as those words sunk in, held out a hand to his young companion. "Now, would you?"

"Yes!" Damian nodded furiously. "Yes, yes, yes! I mean," He admonished, calming slightly. "i would, very much so."

Caden held back a chuckle. "Very well. Grab my hand; it will be quick, I assure you—"

The dark haired man payed the bill, and led the child—Damian—outside, casting a glance around before moving into a nearby alleyway. With one more quick look at their surroundings, He held Damian close to his chest and, with a whirlwind of shadows and a small flash of red lights, the two vanished.

This is the beginning of the story of Prince Damian Conrad Voidsurfer. Harry Potter is no more.

_**:3:57 PM:**_

_**-Daescon Uo(city), Demon Realm:**_

The Demon Realm was not a connection of dark, dank caves but was actually very nice. There were woodlands stretching as far as the eye could see, lakes and mountains and plain open fields. For each type of demon there was a natural habitat. In the center of the Realm, the Royal city was located. There the Palace of Kings could be found which consisted of a central courtyard with several wings **(1)**. Lush gardens surrounded the Palace and it was littered with fountains and hidden passage ways.

Caden appeared with his companion near a large, dark green leaves bush that was laden with blood red, bright lavender, and peach-colored blossoms. This was towards the center of a rather large garden in one of the eastern wings. Now, Damian was finally able to gather a good, long look at the man. Caden was tall, with tanned skin, dark black hair held in a low ponytail, and dark gray eyes that sparkled brightly. He wore a tight black vest over his bare chest, which ripples with muscle, and you could clearly see the tribal-like tattoos which wound their way around his biceps and abdomen. His loose black trousers were tucked into military style black boots, and a silver belt laden with all sorts of weapons hung tightly around his waist.

Caden motioned for Damian to follow him and began walking briskly down the grassy path towards the majestic white palace that loomed over the whole grounds. Damian hurried to catch up to him, and soon Caden settled with reaching down and tugging the small child into his arms, and continued on. "This is _Daescon Uo_, the city surrounding the Palace Voidsurfer, where your father rules."

Damian glanced down with excitement twinkling in his emerald eyes. "How come nobody noticed all those knives and swords in London?" He asked, curious.

Caden adjusted Damian in his arms and smiled. "It's Demon Magic. I put a vision block on myself before going to the Human Realm. Almost like those Magical Human's "notice-me-not charms." The man made a face at the wizards' choice of title, and Damian giggled. "You'll be learning something of the sort, I believe, during your training."

"Really?" The boy tilted his head, eyes wide. "Oh, cool! I can't wait!"

Caden flashed another smile at the young Prince, before stepping out of the garden's gate and into a long, ridiculously clean, white-stone paved street that bustled with activity. **(2)**

All life seemed to freeze as the people—demons, they were _demons—_caught sight of Caden. They moved to the side of the street silently, and bowed deeply.

""_All hail Commander Caden Lightbane!""_ echoed loudly through the streets as Caden nodded once, then continued on. Damian was slightly unnerved by this display, but decided not to break the silence by voicing his thoughts now.

The stares of the inhabitants of the Demon Realm were only cut off when Caden entered the palace doors. As they closed behind them, Damian was relieved to find that the servants that surrounded them didn't let their looks linger—as such, they saw them, acknowledged them, and were on their way.

"Let's get you cleaned up before we meet your father, yes?" Caden mused, setting the child in his arms down on the thickly carpeted floor once they had entered a large room somewhere on the second floor of a western wing.

Damian nodded silently, and watched as the servant that Caden had ushered in after them before closing the door drew a bath in the white marble tub—it didn't look like a tub to him. It looked more like a miniature _swimming pool_. The scent of peach blossoms wafted up into the air only minutes later, and Damian grinned when he saw how many bubbles floated on the surface of the water. There were even a few blood-red flower petals. It looked... really relaxing—it occurred to him that when a five-year-old was in a situation to think such a thing, things _must_ be bad, but he could really care less right now. The fact that he was actually _royalty _was just sinking in.

Some time later—Caden seemed highly amused when Damian, to the slight frustration of the servant, refused to get out until he'd popped _all_ of the bubbles—Damian stood on a stool, wearing white boxers and socks, with a very fluffy red towel draped over his head, and watching curiously as the servant—his name was Terry—dived into drawers and wardrobes and closets full of clothes, finally coming out with an outfit in his size. After he'd been dressed, the child looked into the mirror with wide, owlish green eyes. He wore black trousers, boots, and a vest over a blood-red long sleeved tunic that had a slight turtleneck. Terry was just fastening on a simple, gold, chain link necklace when Damian frowned, staring at himself in the mirror. "Caden, why am I all blurry?"

Caden's brows were brought together in confusion. Blurry? What... "Oh, right! I almost forgot to take your glamour off!" He snapped his fingers, smiling.

Damian blinked, turning to look at him with bog curious green eyes. "Glamour?"

Caden nodded, taking in a breath. He concentrated on Damian, before speaking. "_La nebulo de nia vizio estos ekzilita, lasu la vera formo elvenu por ĉiuj vidi. _**Reveal!**"

And then, Damian was changing. His skin became a bit cocoa tinted, his eyes slanted slightly, becoming more gold in color, the green diminishing. His hair darkened even more if possible, and was no longer unruly—it was straight, manageable(Terry noted with relief), sleek and silky. Damian let out a small squeak, and Caden noticed his voice had become more innocent sounding—cute, even. The English accent gone, only to be replaced with the accent of the Demon language—all demons had this accent, though it differed from each other, sometimes greatly. Damian's accent sounded like a waterfall, somehow. A waterfall of honey. Which was weird. Since honey waterfalls didn't make any sounds—he should know, there were plenty of them in the gardens. That's just what this child's voice would remind you of.

Damian golden eyes were wide, and he was clutching at Caden's pant leg, staring back at the mirror as if it had just kicked a puppy or something. "Wh-What was that?" He asked, voice shaken.

Caden reached down a lifted the boy up into his arms once again. "This is what you really look like. Glamours change your appearance. You'll learn how to cast them in... perhaps three years or so. They're very simple Demon Magic, though the one cast on you was a bit more complicated."

Damian nodded, loosening his tight grip on Caden's shirt. "What was that weird stuff you were saying before, though?" He yawned.

"Esperanto." Caden replied. "The basis language of Demon Magic. We were actual the ones to invent that language..." He sighed, shaking his head. "Well are you ready to meet your father now?" He asked, looking down at Damian, who was resting his head on his broad shoulder, eyes closed.

"Mhm..." Damian hummed some sort of affirmative, before letting out a kitten-like yawn.

Caden smiled, watching the child fall asleep. "Well, then. Let's go."

And he walked down the large corridors, towards the throne room where King Richard Voidsurfer sat in wait.

_**:4:32 PM:**_

_**The Throne Room, Palace Voidsurfer, Demon Realm-**_

Richard Draken Voidsurfer, King of the Demon Realm, sat on his throne, smiling down at the small child that slept in his lap. Damian was curled in a ball, his head resting against his real father's chest, his small fists clenching the fabric of his cloak.

"How was it?" He asked his Advisor, Commander of his army, and childhood best friend Caden Lightbane. "What happened?"

Caden shook his head, perhaps _slightly _bemused. "He seems like an, uh, _adorable_," he coughed," child, truly. He'd polite, and a good listener. I found that he's quite smart, even for his current age. I don't believe, however," here, the man scowled a little, "that the humans were, let's say, treating him _gently_."

Richard's gaze sharped, and he turned to look his friend in the eye. "How so?"

"I found that he was injured, quite a lot. I didn't like the looks of it, so I healed the wounds—just cuts and bruises from what I saw—while we were walking towards a restaurant to eat. He was very hungry, as well. I don't think they'd been feeding him." Caden frowned sadly, staring down at Damian, who was sleeping peacefully. "I... Forgive me, my lord, but I believe they were abusing him."

Richard sat up, tightening his hold on his son, eyes narrowed. Caden fingered the hilt of one of his swords, gray orbs glinting with malice. "Allow me to pleasure of asking, sire—Will we be acting on this offense?"

The King nodded, sitting back slowly on his throne. "Indeed. Kill them. Make it look like an accident to sedate the Human authorities, but I want them punished and _gone_. Is that clear?"

Caden smirked, saluting. "Crystal, my lord. What of their own child?"

"Leave him be, I'm sure the government will take care of him" the King shook his head. "His parent's actions are in no way his own fault."

"Understood." Caden nodded sharply, before progressing out of the room, letting the large oak doors boom closed behind him.

King Richard's eyes were gentle and filled with guilt and slight sorrow as he gazed down at Damian, who'd shifted at the noise, mumbling something in his sleep. "I'm so, so sorry, my son, for allowing you to be put through such trials. At a young age as this, no less." He sighed deeply, running a hand through the child's soft black locks. "Please, forgive me."

Damian made a soft noise. "...Kay..." He sighed contently, letting his father's cloak go.

Richard smiled quietly as his son's golden eyes opened. The boy smiled sleepily up as him, lifting a hand slowly to touch Richards face. "... I forgive you..." He blinked owlishly.

"... Thank you." The King raised his own hand and caught the smaller one, bringing it back down and just holding it. "I do hope you'll like your life here at the palace."

"Why wouldn't I?" Damian seemed truly curious. "It's really nice here. It makes me feel better."

Richard nodded happily. "I'm glad. Are you still tired?"

Damian nodded slowly, eyes fluttering. "Mmm... Yeah. I was walking a...long time...and..." He yawned, shifting closer to the warmth the King's body radiated.

As soon as the child drifted into oblivion, Richards eye hardened once more, and he held Damian tightly. "I will never let that repeat itself, son. You'll never have to walk such distances alone again. I promise."

_**:5:00 PM:**_

_**-No. 4 Privet Drive, Uptown London, England, Human Realm-**_

Blood was... really red. Redder than the roses in the palace gardens, Caden decided. No matter how many times he saw it, no matter how many times he made it appear, the rich color of the precious liquid never ceased to astound him.

The horizontally challenged young boy that huddled, terrified, in the corner of the tiled kitchen stared at him with wide, frightened eyes. That was fine—he would have been slightly worried if the child _wasn't_ scared. He _had _just slaughtered his parents.

Ah well. Not his problem. Prince Damian was safe now. These vile creatures would hurt him no longer. Never again.

He reached for the cloth tucked into his belt and wiped his blade clean, before sheathing it and putting the cloth away once more. He surveyed the scene one last time, eyes sweeping over the whole picture. The severely mangled bodies of two adults, positioned neatly underneath the sharp blades of the large, fallen ceiling fan—people really needed to put safety thing son those. They could kill someone—the puddles of blood just under the corpse, signifying the crash landing into the carpet. The small trail of the red smudges that led to the kitchen, where the child was curled up in the corner, showing that he'd crawled away, before passing out from blood loss—Caden hit the boy in the head with the hilt of his dagger just seconds ago, making sure to hit hard enough for minimal memory loss(he just had to forget these recent events. It wouldn't do for the humans, non-magical no less, to catch evidence of Demon existence)—and shattered glass littering the floors, from the light bulb that had been attached to the fan.

All in all, it was a pretty good job, if he had any say in it.

_**-Author's Note-**_

_**(1) Think Versailles in France. Yeah, like that. Pretteh ^ ^**_

_**(2) It's like Diagon Alley, only more clean, more spacious, and more awesome. I just didn't wanna add the details, or describe it, so yeah.**_

_**Here's the translations for the Esperanto: ****The haze of our vision be banished, let the true form come forth for all to see.  
****-_- This story is... not starting out very well, is it? All well. I read a similar idea by another author who, sadly, never finished it, so I took the idea upon myself, changed it drastically, and this popped up.  
I hope it's okay. I have a lot of other stories going on right now, GAH, I shouldn't have started this yet *sigh* Ah well. At least it's up there now. Please review! I want to know how I did so I can continue this! I've always hated the name Harry, anyways. Damian's SO much cooler. And cute, too. I really like this.. Please review and tell me if you do!**_

_**Thanks. ^ ^**_

_**~EpikalStorms***_

**Next time, on Sors Daemoniorum: We see Damian, sixteen year old, heartbreaking Prince of the Demon Realm, in all his glory. What is Damian's Deon type? And what's all this about a war between Light and Dark Wizards of Britain, in the Human Realm? Do I _have_ to go, Dad? Dear old Dumbles alerts the world of one M.I.A. Harry Potter, while Voldemort gets steps up to the plate.**


	2. What Truly Happened, and What Was Told

_**Last time, on Sors Daemoniorum:**_

_He could practically smell the air of freedom as he silently slunk out the front door of Number 4 Privet Drive. No more cuts or bruises from that family's hands. No more pain, no more hurt._

…

"_Oh!" The child coughed roughly, his face paling at the sight of the person he'd hit. "I-I'm sorry sir! I'm so sorry, I-I wasn't watching where I was-was going, and—"_

…

"_I am Caden Lightbane."_

…

_Now this is the beginning spoken of before. This is now Prince Damian Voidsurfer. The child called Harry Potter is no more._

…

_Sadly, a year later your mother and her husband were murdered. Even today, we are unsure of the identity of their killer, and you were taken before we could intervene._

…

_Damian hurried to catch up to him, and soon Caden settled with reaching down and tugging the small child into his arms, and continued on. "This is Daescon Uo, the city surrounding the Palace Voidsurfer, where your father rules."_

…

"_La nebulo de nia vizio estos ekzilita, lasu la vera formo elvenu por ĉiuj vidi. Reveal!"_

…

_And then, Damian was changing. His skin became a bit cocoa tinted, his eyes slanted slightly, becoming more gold in color, the green diminishing. His hair darkened even more if possible, and was no longer unruly._

…

_Richard sat up, tightening his hold on his son, eyes narrowed. Caden fingered the hilt of one of his swords, gray orbs glinting with malice. "Allow me to pleasure of asking, sire—Will we be acting on this offense?"_

…

"_Indeed. Kill them."_

…

_Richard smiled quietly as his son's golden eyes opened. The boy smiled sleepily up as him, lifting a hand slowly to touch Richards face. "... I forgive you..." _

…

"_I will never let that repeat itself, son. You'll never have to walk such distances alone again. I promise."_

…

_Ah well. Not his problem. Prince Damian was safe now. These vile creatures would hurt him no longer. Never again. All in all, it was a pretty good job, if he had any say in it._

…

**Chapter 1**

_**:12:00 AM:**_

_**-Archery Range, Kraken Garden, Eastern wing #3, Palace Voidsurfer, Demon Realm-**_

Damian Voidsurfer trained his eye down the shaft of the sleek, steel-tipped arrow. He pulled back on the bowstring with practiced accuracy, and with a _twang_, the projectile flew through the air at breakneck speed and imbedded itself deeply into it's target. It had been eleven long, eventful, and enjoyable years that he'd lived in the Demon Realms since that day when he was five. Now, he had just recently turned sixteen—the age that is considered the turning point of the teenage Demon's life, but also a hindrance. You'd get more privileges, yes, but that didn't stop the real adults from still viewing you as a young and innocent child. This was the age where you stood at the brink of your childhood, trying all year to take that one step which decided if you were ready to move onto adulthood. Some Demon teens tried their best to be mature, and perfect for their sixteenth year of life, while others could really care less what the true adults thought of them. Damian, the Crowned prince of the Demon Realm, was one of these teens. More so, he seemed to stand right on the bold line between the two. He behaved childishly, but had his serious moments as well. Due to his downright adorable traits, he was utterly loved by every Demon in the Realm itself. Damian Conrad Voidsurfer was the pride and joy of the Demon King.

"Nice shot, there, my Prince." A voice called out, then. Damian blinked, lowering his bow and turning to see his longtime friend and guardian, Commander Lightbane, leaning leisurely against the obsidian gate of the archery garden, watching him with a slightly bemused expression. "Oh, hello Caden. Didn't see you there." The teen smiled sheepishly, hugging himself and glancing discreetly in the other direction.

Caden snorted. "Don't pull those "cute" and "adorable" moves on me, Damian. I know them all, practically raising you like I did."

"Right," Damian closed his eyes, grinning shyly, still. "My bad." He set his weapon down and moved forward to sit on a nearby stone bench, looking up into the older Demon's deep gray eyes. "So, what brings you here, then?"

Caden rolled his shoulders back, before sitting next to his young charge. "I just wanted to congratulate you on passing your final flying exam, I suppose." The Prince had completed his training—in Demon Magic, and weapon play as well as the fighting arts—just a short time before. Overall, he had become a master aerial warrior as well—every demon could obtain a set of wings no matter their type(as there were dog demons, bird demons, snake demons—that sort) by having a skilled Demon warlock or such enchant a tattoo upon their shoulders, which would become a set of wings whenever their owners willed it. Damian's tattoos were quite stunning, admittedly. The wings were almost bat-like when outstretched, though they probably would remind you more of an ice-dragon—if the ice was black. When in tattoo form, however, they were only intricate and beautifully crafted black designs that swirled across the teen's shoulder blades. Besides these, the rest of Damian's appearance had changed as he grew older as well. His milk chocolate colored skin had a healthy glow to it, almost reminding Caden of apricots somehow, when it was illuminated at night(Demon's skin was like that. They glowed in the dark—literally). He had many other, tribal like tattoos that wound around his biceps and torso, and his legs and forearms—much like Caden himself, only less so, and in silver as well as an inky black. His usual attire consisted of a black vest, tied closed at the front, black boots, black trousers, and sometimes a white, silver, or gold long-sleeved tunic. Belts hung like sashes in an X across his chest, from his shoulders to his hips, and were laden with many, many weapons(hidden or no). His favorite weapon, however, was his silver bow and steel-tipped arrows—though the black bladed Stygian dagger set he had received for his sixteenth birthday came in at a close second. Damian's eyes were so gold, that they seemed to glow, even in the light—and more in the dark. His obsidian hair was tied back, lowly, with a black string, though his bangs hung around his face slightly—just enough to cover the scar that rested almost beneath the hairline now, and his hair just barely reached his shoulder blades. The scar itself was so faded, you'd only be able to see it if you knew it was there, and looked hard enough.

Damian smiled softly. "That's not all, though, I believe?"

Caden smirked. "As perceptive as ever. Yes, you are correct. Our King requests your presence in the War Chamber in," the man glanced quickly at the indigo sky, "about twenty minutes."

Damian nodded. "Walk with me?" He asked, and Caden nodded his consent.

"Of course."

The left the range and made their way to the northern-most wing, toward the back of the palace. This wing held the great room that was known as the War Chamber, which was located just behind the large and magnificent throne room. The ceiling of the War Chamber consisted of a large, glass dome, enchanted with demonic magic, making it indestructible, and it shone like a mountain made of diamond. It was visible from every angle, and was one of the most eye-catching features of the entire palace,

As the two Demons walked side by side down the wide corridors carpeted in white, red, silver and gold, Damian turned curiously towards his companion. "Why are we having a War council, though? I thought we negotiated peace with the Sythlacs last year?"

Caden shook his head, shrugging. "I'm not sure, actually. While it is true that Sythlacite-Netherworld War was brought to an end, large thanks to your help for that, the King did seem a bit concerned about this meeting. Perhaps there are still some left-over Sythlacite renegades running around..."

Damian had, over the past years, been a large help in war negotiations and the conduction of peace treaties throughout the realms. Most say it was just impossible to dislike him due to his fun, loving, and caring nature, but Caden saw that he was actually very talented in making points, and bringing truth to light. He was a invaluable asset to the Demon Council, that fact remained prominent. As it was, the Sythlic Empire was one of the Realms nearest to the Demon Realm, which was commonly known as "The Netherworld." The Demons were very high up on the social standing ladder, it seemed, and was one, if the _the_ richest Realm in the Universal Plains. The Sythlacs apparently got jealous of that fact(they were quite poor, falling in on a large-scale financial depression), and had cast organized raids on The Netherworld about three years before, which soon led to an all-out war between the two. The scales were tipped in the Demons, favor, however, due to the fact they had more resources, manpower, and funds. Damian soon found himself feeling sympathy towards the Sythlacites, who were feeling heavy blows to their population, armies, food sources, and even their low economy—so he requested that his father allow him to go negotiate with the Sythlac Emperor. He soon departed toward a agreed meeting place on the border between Realms—known as "Neutral Territory"—and began negotiations. After meeting Damian, both Realms were surprised at how quickly the Emperor agreed to a well thought-out treaty. It seemed that the Prince had made the Sythlac see sense—that with the Sythlic Empire's deteriorating economy, war was the _last_ thing they needed. After that, The Netherworld began aiding the Sythlic Empire, helping them rise out of the dark hole they'd pulled themselves into—though there were still small groups scattered around, Sythlic renegades and many refugees that didn't see the point of the treaty clearly yet, as Caden had pointed out.

"Maybe so," Damian pondered. They had reached the throne room, now, and he led the way to a large, almost unnoticeable oak door that sat toward the left of the golden throne of the King. He pushed it open and entered the War Chamber, nodding towards the gathered group. There was the King, his father; the eight Demon Warlords, who helped strategic approaches, and advised alongside Caden—who was the Commander of the Kings armies and the Royal Advisor as well; the five archmages, who oversaw as well as led, and trained the Demon troops who worked with magic instead of weaponry; the four Generals who lead under Caden; and Damian, Crowned Prince, Master Archer and Leader of the Royal Negotiations.

Damian and Caden bowed deeply toward the King, and acknowledged the presence of the others. As Damian sat down to the right of his father, he sensed a foreboding aura centered in the room, like a terrible event was approaching or about to take place. He narrowed his eyes and his ears lay flat against his head. Richard shot him a knowing look.

That was another thing about Damian Conrad Voidsurfer. It had taken a long time, actually, for the Demon's to figure out his Demon type. He remembered that day very well...

_Damian looked up at Caden with wide eyes, before taking his hand and allowing the older Demon to lead him toward the dining hall. He'd only been in the Demon Realm for two years, but it still never ceased to amaze him. Of course, after the last four years of his life in the slums, you'd expect this—but that did nothing to lessen the amazing masterpiece of beauty that was the Netherworld._

"_What we going to have for dinner, Caden?" Damian swung on his forearm. Caden shook his head, smiling. No one could figure out how the Prince could stay so agile._

"_I am unaware of the menu, my Prince." the Commander answered. He'd somehow become Damian's favorite companion over the time the little Demon had lived in the Palace. Nobody knew why Damian was so clingy..._

_The boy sucked in a deep breath. "Are we gonna have more fish? Cod? Cod? Tuna? Fish?~" He pleaded, looking up with those large, owlish gold eyes. That was something else that got them. Damian **loved** eating fish. He'd gorge himself on them if there wasn't anyone there to stop him. It was a bit scary, actually._

"_I do not know," Caden sighed, lifting the child into his arms as they arrived at the large, oak doors that led into the hall. It was decorated with gold and silver threaded draperies and carpets, and a long, black—obsidian—table sat in the center of the hall. At the head of the table sat King Richard, who smiled up at them in greeting. "_Salutoj_, my son. Caden," he sent a nod toward the Commander. "Please, be seated."_

_Damian clambered onto the seat to the right of his father, beaming up at the King before looking at the table expectantly. Caden smirked, sitting toward Richard's left. _

"_Are we having fish? Are we? Daddy, are we going to have fish? Mmmm!~" Damian sighed, sinking in his chair happily._

_Richard stifled a laugh, patting his son on the head. "Of course, Dami. We always have a platter of fish for you with every meal, remember?"_

_The seven year old grinned, turning his slanted eyes toward the kitchen doors in wait for the servers. "Yup~ I forgot."_

_As the servants set the platters of food down before them, Damian grinned down at the fish, before frowning slightly and looking around. "Mmm, Daddy? Why isn't there any milk? Milk is good!~"_

_Richard raised an eyebrow. "Milk? I haven't heard that one before..." he looked over at Caden, who suddenly wore an exasperated face._

"_He drinks about a galleon a day!" The gray eyed man admonished. "I don't know where it all goes!"_

_The King blinked, then glanced down at Damian, who was reaching for a large glass jar of milk one of the servants held out to him._

_The young boy held the jar in his hands, looking down eagerly at it's contents, before downing the whole thing in under a minute. Caden looked away with wide eyes, while the King just gazed at his son with an open mouth._

"_Mmm!~" Damian sighed, setting the glass down. "More? He asked the servant, who looked towards the king with slightly wide eyes. Richard shook his head a little, then ruffled Damian's hair. "No, I believe that is enough, son."_

_Damian hissed, almost pouting, and Richard, Caden and the servants' eyes all widened._

_Damian hissed._

_Damian _hissed_._

Damian_ hissed._

Damian hissed.

_Nope. It still didn't seem real. Why on earth would Damian hiss unless—_

"_Awww!" Damian cried, disappointed. "Why not?" The young Demon Prince's ears lay flat against __his hair, and his tail stopped swishing—_

"_E-EARS?! TAIL?!" Caden shouted, eyes bulging. "Where did _that_ come from?!"_

_Damian blinked up at him with wide eyes. Slowly, as Richard and Caden watched in confusion, he reached his small hands up and gently fingered the fuzzy, obsidian cat ears that rested on the top of his head. They were faded pink on the inside, and the tail that was curled around the boys waist was a solid black like his hair. "Heyyy!~" The child giggled. "I have _ears_!"_

"_A-ah." Richard nodded shakily. "He must be a Cat Demon, then."_

"_Wonder what kind..." Caden leaned forward and let out a deep sigh, resting his chin on his hands._

_They both sat there and watched in wonder as Damian consumed the platter of salmon a wide-eyed servant set before him..._

Damian sighed. Yeah, good times. He looked up at the twenty other Demons who sat near him, around the large, circular stone table, which was strewn with maps and strategies and battle plans from past wars and events. He turned to look at his father, then, who had stood up as soon as Caden sat to his left. "_Salutoj_, my friends." The Demon King said. "I have called you here today to discuss a rather strange matter concerning events in the Human Realm." Damian stiffened as the Warlords murmured to each other in surprise. He didn't like the Human Realm, there were bad people there... He snapped back to attention as Richard continued. "They've made contact with us—" Here, the mages bristled while the other's, save for Caden, gasped. Damian gulped, hoping that whatever his father said next had nothing to do with him. "—and have requested aid in heir war against an enemy called the "Light.""

Damian stilled, trying to comprehend what that meant. So it wasn't the _humans_ asking for help, par say. It was the _Magical_ Humans and Creatures. That...didn't really make things much better, in his eyes.

"I have considered their request, and have decided to send The Prince up to negotiate possible ways we can assist, and the payment."

Damian froze as the Warlords and the Generals turned to speak with each other on the matter quietly on the other side of the table. Caden was watching him closely out of the corner of his eyes, it seemed, and the King was just sitting down.

"Father..." Damian frowned softly, clinging to Richard's arm once the man was seated. The King turned to him, surprised. "Yes, my son? What is it?"

"U-Um..." Damian's ears drooped, and his tail curled around his waist while his slightly sharpened teeth bit his lower lip—telltale signs that he was uncomfortable. "I.. Please don't make me go there! I don't want to!"

Richard frowned. "Damian? Why not?"

The Prince shook his head wordlessly, clutching the man's arm. The King looked down at his son, concerned. He opened his mouth to speak, only to stop again when he felt a hand on his arm. He looked over to see Caden, giving him a look that said "Not right now."

Richard was confused, but decided to brush off his son's strange behavior until after the meeting. He turned to the gathered Demons, who were now looking back at him, and awaited their response.

_**:an hour later:**_

_**-Throne Room, Palace Voidsurfer, Demon Realm-**_

"No! Daddy, please, I don't want to!" Damian tugged his sleeve, ears flat against his head and pupils slitted. His claws(they were retractable, as a cats. His fingernails would turn black, sharped into needle-like tips and curl in on themselves ever-so-slightly—they hurt, Caden could vouch for that)were out a bit, and they ripped into Richard's shirt.

The King was about to scold him for the destruction of his tunic, then looked down at Damian's face. Damian was a bit small for his age. He stood two heads shorter than his father, and usually one or perhaps one and a half heads shorter than other Demons his age. Damian's kitten-like eyes were wide, and he could see a hint of fear in them. Damian was extremely adorable, especially when he got like this which was, thankfully, not very often. It was cute moments like these that showed the Realm that Damian lived up to his nickname, "The Kitten Prince." Though, Richard hadn't been called "Daddy" by him in quite a while.

"Dami?" He asked softly. "What's wrong, son?"

"Please don't make me go..." The teen hung his head, clinging to his father's arm.

Richard sighed worriedly, now concerned for his son. He walked over to his throne, his son trailing behind, and sat down, lifting his arm just a bit so that Damian didn't have to bend down—but Damian appeared to have other ideas.

The King blinked in shock as his son crawled up onto his lap, just like he'd done when he was smaller—and the King realized that, really, Damian didn't seem to have gotten any heavier. The Kitten Demon was unbelievably light, almost to a point where Richard would be worried for his health if he hadn't known it was one of the perks of being a half magical Cat Demon.

"D-Damian?" Richard stuttered as the teen—he was really just a big child at this point—curled up into a ball and clenched the front of his tunic, burying his face into the soft fabric. "Don't make me go back." He cried.

Richard was very worried, now. He wrapped his arms around his boy and bit his lip. His son was crying, why was he crying? He'd never acted like _this _before, not at this age, at least. And what did he mean about going _back_? As far as he knew, Damian had never...

Oh.

_Oh_.

"Oh, Dami, I'm sorry." Richard sighed, hugging the shaking teen gently. "I know you don't like it there, but we made sure that the people who had hurt you are gone now! It's safe to go back, I promise."

"No! No," Damian breathed in. "There's more of them, there's more! Those Magical Humans, they're the one who _gave _me to the mean Humans! They could do it again! Please don't make me go there! Somewhere else, pick somewhere else!"

Richard's shoulders slumped. He really didn't want to do his. He knew why Damian was so frightened of the Human world; he had nothing but terrible memories of pain and hurt there. They had given him nightmares every single night without fail for the first _six_ _years_ he'd been in the Demon Realm, and they were still, sadly, not uncommon. If he were to go back to that particular Realm, Richard was sure he'd have terrors every night.

"I am truly sorry for this, my son." He felt Damian take in a deep breath of horror, and he knew that the teen knew what was going to happen next. "But I am afraid that you are the only one for this—"

"No!" Damian's knuckles were turning white. "I don't want any more bad dreams!" He sobbed. "Daddy, _please—_"

"Damian," Richard's voice was hard, but inside he was hurting. "That is my final decision. You'll be departing for the Human Realm in three days time. I suggest you go prepare." His tone spoke for him, saying that there was absolutely no room for any argument.

Damian stilled and grew silent. Richard closed his eyes and bowed his head, waiting for the teen's reaction.

Except... there wasn't one. Damian released his shirt, and stood up, his face shadowed by his bangs. Richard watched him leave the throne room in silence, concern shining in the Demon King's eyes. "I'm sorry, Dami..." Richard bowed is head, clenching his fists. Why couldn't the Human's just take care of themselves? But it was in the Demon code: If any race of the Humans found out about the Demon Realm on their own and asked for aid, the Demons were obligated to help them, no matter the situation. It was one of the rules Richard most despised. At least they were allowed choose the side they wanted to help once they were notified and requested in a war.

He felt a hand touch his arm, and looked up to see Caden staring down at him, a sad look in his eyes. "Are you alright, sir?" He whispered, frowning.

Richard shook his head and sighed into his hands. "I'm more worried about Damian. Do you think he'll be okay?"

Caden stood up. "Damian can take care of himself quite well, sir. I wouldn't be too concerned for him. He'll figure something out."

The King looked up slowly. "Truly?"

"Cross my heart, hope to die, a needle in my eye and roasted alive." Caden told him solemnly, reciting a vow from their childhood.

Richard cracked a smile.

_**:Eleven Years Earlier:**_

_**-Somewhere in Britain, Human Realm-**_

"My youthful body," The Dark Lord breathed, examining his hands which were, thanks to the curse one of his followers had just lifted from him, no longer tight, gaunt or sickly. "At last..."

"My lord," The Death Eater, Trey, bowed. "Shall I call in our forces?" Trey had only graduated from Hogwarts a few years before, but he was now in the Inner Circle of Voldemort's most loyal. He was extremely polite, almost like a butler, and Voldemort—well, _Tom—_liked to keep him close by.

"Hm..." Tom mused, tapping his chin, before moving his hands to brush across his cheek, then his nose, which was, thank God, all _there_. "Yes, I think that would be most satisfactory. But no need, Trey. I'll do it myself..." He pushed up the sleeve of his black robes, and pressed a finger against the Dark Mark that was burned there. It hadn't _really_ been necessary to don the Mark himself, but he hadn't wanted his Death Eaters to be alone—getting the mark _hurt_, and he wasn't a sadist, really. No matter _what_ that old fool Dumbledore was telling the Wizarding World.

He looked up when he heard a sudden cracking sound, and watched as his Death Eaters apparated into the room one by one. The shocked expressions on his followers faces were priceless. Only those in his his Inner Circle were able to composed themselves quickly after; but even Lucius Malfoy had been shocked enough to let his mask slip. Tom watched the proceedings gleefully. A Malfoy was very hard to shock and he mentally congratulated himself on a job well done.

"Now that all most of our comrades have arrived," He spoke, once they were silent and had gathered around him in a large number, "I believe it is time for a short, hm, explanation?" He raised an eyebrow, and most nodded shakily, but others looked on without responding. So he went on. "Quite a long time ago, on the night that crooked old man, _Dumbledore_, " he said the name with venom, and many, if not all, the people in the room sneered distastefully, "murdered our brother and sister, James and Lily Potter, then stole their child, the old coot spoke a heavy curse onto me as I attempted to rescue them, imprisoning me in that horrid form you've come to view as your lord."

He shook his head. "It has taken some years, and much hard work for my distant cousin, Trey," He nodded in the young adult in question, who nodded back solemnly. It was no lie. He'd found out that Trey was the grandnephew of his aunt, on his father's side, a few years before Trey had been admitted into Hogwarts, and was able to spare the boy's mind from any manipulations that "old coot" could muster up. "—but we were able, tonight, to bring me back to my form before that fateful night. This is me," he motioned to himself, and watched as the Death Eaters nodded, "and no other, I assure you."

The men and women in the room looked satisfied, so he continued. "Now that I have gotten over that despicable curse, there are many things that need to be sorted out. Firstly, we must liberate our brothers and sisters from their sentence to Azkaban. Those fools need to realize I was never gone."

As his followers and friends cheered, Tom raised a hand to dismiss them from the short meeting. "Henry," He called McNair. The man turned. "I've chosen you to gather the raids for the prison break. Choose your groupings wisely, and be ready to leave and lead them to victory by sundown next Thursday. " The undercover Ministry worker grinned, nodding, before leaving to do his new and welcomed task.

Tom then turned to Lucius Malfoy, who stood beside him. "Lucius, please tell me what I wish to know."

His friend nodded.

"What, honestly, happened that night?"

The blond haired man paled, then frowned angrily. "We don't know who exactly attacked the Potters, but the wizarding world blames you, my lord. We know their son is alive, as do you, but Dumbledore has taken him somewhere we cannot penetrate. We presume the attack was ordered by _Dumbledore_," here, he sneered, "because we know for certain he found out James and Lily were in your Inner Circle. That is all we've managed to gather, besides the assumption that their son is hidden somewhere in the Muggle World."

"Well done Lucius, at least we have a place to start searching, Dumbledore will pay for this. He probably wanted to use the boy against us in the future somehow." Tom mused, fingering his robes while a frown marred his handsome face. He sent a sharp look toward the blond man "Eleven years from now—when will the boy receive his Hogwarts letter?"

"His birthday is the 31st of October, my lord." Lucius replied. "On Halloween. The same night as the attack, as it happens. Though, Dumbledore has somehow managed to change the birth records at the Ministry to the 31st of July, so he shall most likely receive his letter then, when he is _legally_ eleven years of age."

Tom considered this information. "At this..." He said. "Well then, Thank you, Lucius. You may go. Severus!" He called to his other friend as the blond man bowed and left the room. "Come here a moment."

Severus Snape, Potion's Master of the Dark side, whose apprentice just-so-happened to be one Trey Campbell(Riddle, but that wasn't the name on Ministry records), longtime friend of Lily Evan-Potter, and undercover spy of the Dark Lord Voldemort, stood up from his seat in the black leather chair in the sitting room and came over. "Yes, Tom?" Severus questioned. He was Tom's best friend, as it happened, and had such pleasures as calling the Dark Lord by his true name.

"I want you to keep your post at Hogwarts, keep incognito, try getting the Dark Arts (Defense) position, while secretly giving me more information. You have been a fantastic help so far."

"Thanks," Severus smiled. "I'll try my best."

Tom patted his longtime friend on the arm. "I'm so sorry, my friend, that I could not get to Godric's Hollow sooner. I could have stopped—"

Severus cut him off quickly; yet another one of his privileges as the lord's best friend. "No need to apologize, Tom. I know it wasn't your fault. Don't blame yourself, please. I'm sure Lily would have said the same. And James, as well."

"Alright," Tom nodded, smiling sadly. "I won't. Promise."

Severus smiled and left through the parlor door.

Tom sat back in his seat, thinking. "After the raid, the Dark side will Declare war on the Light. Dumbledore's actions will _not _go unpunished." He clenched his fist, sighing. "Do not fear, Harry Potter. I'll avenge your parent's deaths, and reveal that old coot's _true_ colors to the world."

_**:Six Years Ago:**_

_**-Hogwarts, Headmaster's Office, Great Britain, Human Realm-**_

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore sat in his office, frowning down at the unopened envelope that lay on his desk before him. All the owls sent to invite Harry Potter to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry had been unable to locate the boy, and the letters returned unopened. It almost seemed as if he had vanished of the face of the earth. Or he might be dead. It really was time to just give up, then? Best not to think about that, he needed that boy, all his plans to use the boy as a tool against Voldemort depended on him being loyal to the Light. And to do that, Dumbledore needed him _here,_ at the school where he could manipulate him. Perhaps he needed to search a replacement of the boy savior? But the only other boy born the date the prophecy specified was the Longbottom heir, and Neville didn't seem to be... efficient, for the job. Maybe he could use the youngest Weasley boy. He was, after all, born on the same day as Potter. Or the day Potter was thought to be born. July 31st.  
But first he would have to inform the world that the boy-who-lived was missing. A task he didn't look forward to. The elder wizard sighed, before reaching for a spare page of parchment, and opening a fresh inkwell.

_**:The next day:  
-The Daily Prophet-**_

The following day the Daily Prophet printed an article about Harry Potter. News about the Dark side's newest raid on Ministry archives went unnoticed next to this astonishing news that affected both sides of the Magical war. In various ways; most still unknown

_Harry Potter: Missing!_

_Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived has gone missing, as of yesterday, August 1st. Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts, had placed the boy with his remaining blood relatives (Muggles), and reports that the letters of admittance are unable to reach the boy.  
After Aurors arrived at N°4 Privet Drive, where young Harry was supposed to live, they found no sign the boy had ever lived there. Aurors that questioned the neighbors were appalled to find that the Muggles hadn't even filed a missing child report. They did however confirm that the boy was in the Muggle's custody until a few months before his fifth birthday. Apparently, he ran away.  
Rita Skeeter, reporter for the Daily Prophet, asks herself this question: Why? Why would the boy would run off? Was he unhappy? Or perhaps abused? After seeing the past workings of the Muggle family for herself, this reporter could understand that, yes, the boy had been hurt by the family many times, if not daily. If he was indeed abused, then why did our esteemed headmaster Albus Dumbledore do nothing? Surely he checked up on our savior during multiple occasions. But what if he didn't? Another thing that comes to light in this tragic situation is that, strangely, the staff of the Muggle Child Protective Services who had checked on Potter's home environment were found to be memory charmed repeatedly about the very subject of Harry Potter, for when they were asked about the now missing boy, they had no answer's whatsoever. "Our Ministry Obliviators casted a few spells to find out why this was," says Ministry worker Amanda Roberts, head of the Obliviation Department, when questioned about this detail, "and they reported that there were multiple Memory Charms that had been distributed by an unknown castor."  
We then later find that the Muggle family young Potter was entrusted to had been murdered in their own home. According to the Muggle authorities, this occurred not one day after Potter disappeared. Were the killings committed by the same person who obliviated the Muggle CPS staff?  
Who was this mysterious witch or wizard? What connection did they have to Harry Potter, The Boy-Who-Lived? Where are they now? Where is_ Potter_ now?  
All those questions makes this reporter believe that, maybe, Albus Dumbledore isn't as careful as we think he is. We at the Daily Prophet hope desperately that Harry Potter is in good hands, and pray for his safe return._

_**:5:37, Present Time:**_

_**-Unnamed corridor, Southern Wing #7, Palace Voidsurfer, Demon Realm-**_

Damian walked out of his room. Well, one of them. He had a lot... He hadn't really spoken to anyone since the moment his father had ordered him back to the Human Realm. Why had he, though? Surly there were others who could have done the job...weren't there? He wasn't the _only _negotiator in the Realm, was he? His father was practically forcing him to go... And he really, really, really didn't want to. Hadn't his father always said he'd never send him back there? And look, here he was, doing just that! He'd thought his father truly cared for him...

_No, no, don't think like that, Damian! _He chided himself, feeling miserable. _He totally does! Bet he just forgot and all, right? It _has _been rather long since you came home from those nasty Humans. Yeah, he probably just forgot..._

But why, then? From what happened earlier, Richard soon remembered why Damian was afraid of the Human Realm. And he sent him anyway?

"_Fear musn't get in the way of work." _He mused silently as he walked down the corridor to the front gates of the Palace. _Isn't that what Caden's always spewing? _

He let out a long, dramatic sounding sigh, tail swishing behind him as he reached the gate and donned a black, hooded cloak. He could hide his tail, and ears, like he did his claws, but he really didn't want to. They were comfortable, he'd feel weird without them.

He reached up to heft the hood up over his eyes, but ended up petting his ears instead. They hadn't risen up from their spot, lying flat against his hair in a sad way, since he'd gotten the mission. Both hands tugged on them, and he lifted his eyes to the ceiling, exasperated. "Nyan!~" He cried, sitting down on the ground. Seriously, just think of it as another mission, it's _just _another mission...

"Damian?" A voice called out, sounding confused. "My Prince, why are you on the ground?"

He looked up with those golden eyes of his. "Caden! Hi, what are you doing here?" He tilted his head to the side.

The Commander ruffled his hair, and Damian's tail shot straight out in a line in his annoyance. "Hey, heyyy, stop it!" He ducked out from the man's hand, and stood up. "What do you want?"

"I came to see you off," the gray-eyed man said, sounding hurt. "Why else would I be here?"

"I don't know," The teen grumbled. "To give me another thing to do, something my dad conveniently _forgot_ to ask me if I wanted to do it beforehand? Again?"

Caden sighed warily, dropping his hand. "Damian, you're dad really cares about you, truly. He wouldn't be sending you anywhere near the Realm if it wasn't for the Demon Rules. You _know_ that."

Damian shrugged. "Sure... Yeah. Whatever. I'm gonna take off now. See you—"

"Damian.." Caden's warned.

The Cat Demon's shoulder slumped. "I... I really don't want to go!" He choked out, his throat tight.

Caden stepped forward and caught the younger Demon in a hug. "I know, Damian. Just... You'll tough it out. I know you."

_**-Author's Note-**_

_**Alright, so I kind of wanted to continue on from there, but I really couldn't figure out a way to, ya know, move it forward without another chapter break. Plus, If I'd written any more, it would be much longer than the last chapter, which makes my minor OCD-ness freak out. It's needs to be EVEN, dammit!*flips table***_

_**Kay, translations: **_

_**Salutoj = Greetings.**_

… _**Um, did I miss anything? Hm.**_

_**Oh! And, yes, Trey's most obviously an OC. I like him, Strong silent type... I like those almost as much as I like the brash, loud, and temperamental type. Which is... contradicting... Yeah...**_

_**ANYway, please read and review!~ I really like how it's going now, and I want to know if you guys think the same. Is it getting interesting? Did I over-do Dami's cute and adorable-ness? (I don't think so, but I wanna know what YOU think! Cuz I believe Damian should be forever adorable. Though, I believe that ALL my fave characters in all my stories should be that way, so it's sort of a no-brainer. Just look at all my other stories *bangs head into desk* Like, seriously. Get a grip, Scy!) Does it need more "Oomph"? Did I make anyone OOC? Have I cut my chapters too short for comfort? Must I lengthen them, truly? Does anyone think that Esperanto as the Demon's magic language is too cheesy? Should it be something else? Like Latin? But isn't that taken by the Wizarding World already? Will Edward Elric ever become tall? *ducks approaching metal fist* Only one way to find out!**_

_**RE-VIEW. Please?**_

_**^ ^ Love ya**_**!~**

_**~EpikalStorms***_

**Next time, on Sors Daemoniorum: Negotiations will be held, and _secret_ code names will be used. Damian remembers that not all humans are bad—but that knee-weakening fear of their race is brought back in full force by a few Irish bastards(no offense to all the Irish out there)! Virtual Reality Gaming? What about Virtual Reality Multi-Media Online Role Play Games? Or VRMMORPG? Sounds fun~**


	3. Negotiation, Ireland, Gaming, & Attacked

**(See Author's Note at End— Somewhat Important!)**

_**Last time, on Sors Daemoniorum:**_

_Caden snorted. "Don't pull those "cute" and "adorable" moves on me, Damian. I know them all, practically raising you like I did."_

…

_The scar itself was so faded, you'd only be able to see it if you knew it was there, and looked hard enough._

…

_Damian and Caden bowed deeply toward the King, and acknowledged the presence of the others. As Damian sat down to the right of his father, he sensed a foreboding aura centered in the room, like a terrible event was approaching or about to take place. He narrowed his eyes and his ears lay flat against his head. Richard shot him a knowing look._

…

"_U-Um..." Damian's ears drooped, and his tail curled around his waist while his slightly sharpened teeth bit his lower lip—telltale signs that he was uncomfortable. "I.. Please don't make me go there! I don't want to!"_

…

_Why couldn't the Human's just take care of themselves? But it was in the Demon Code: If any race of the Humans found out about the Demon Realm on their own and asked for aid, the Demons were obligated to help them, no matter the situation._

…

"_Damian can take care of himself quite well, sir. I wouldn't be too concerned for him. He'll figure something out."_

…

"_His birthday is the 31st of October, my lord." Lucius replied. "On Halloween. The same night as the attack, as it happens. Though, Dumbledore has somehow managed to change the birth records at the Ministry to the 31st of July, so he shall most likely receive his letter then, when he is legally eleven years of age."_

…

"_Do not fear, Harry Potter. I'll avenge your parent's deaths, and reveal that old coot's true colors to the world."_

…

_'All those questions makes this reporter believe that, maybe, Albus Dumbledore isn't as careful as we think he is. We at the Daily Prophet hope desperately that Harry Potter is in good hands, and pray for his safe return.'_

…

**Chapter 3**

_**:7:30 AM:**_

_**-Dice Cafe Tavern, Rothlú Village, Ireland, Human Realm-**_

He had been waiting for an approximate total of one hour, fifteen minutes and twenty three point four seconds for his demon contact to appear. The scheduled meeting place was a popular tavern called _Dice Cafe_ located in a small but clean, heavily populated, and famous Ireland village named **Rothlú**. The village itself is as interesting as it's name, which meant "rotation" in the Irish tongue. The entire establishment was centered around the town square, _Ionad_, which was actually a large circular plot of land that was paved with cobblestone and jagged, but safe, uncut marble. The streets and homes and alleyways that roped around _Ionad_ were built upon a system of tunnels that could be moved in different directions, thus causing the buildings and such to be slowly but surely rotated around the town square. It was considered to be a more modern Eighth World Wonder, and was a popular tourist attraction. And, if his vampiric informant was true to his word, the village also a favored hotspot and meeting place for Demons traveling in the "Human Realm."

He waited somewhere on the corner of the bar's counter, sitting on a stool, in homely cafe. The place was bustling with crowded activity, much like the Three Broomsticks back at Hogsmeade, and at first he hadn't seen how they could have a _privet_ conversation without someone overhearing. However, he soon came to understand; holding their negotiations here would be much more private than at a more scarcely populated tavern. The noise of the other customers would drown out most, if not all, of what was to be spoken, and with all of the many different characters present, they would most likely receive little to no strange looks. If the meeting had been scheduled at any other, more quiet tavern, there was bound to be someone to overhear their words. He had to give whoever the demon was who thought of this place for their meeting props. They were much smarter than he'd anticipated.

He tugged the hood of his dark brown cloak over his eyes, watching the doors. So far, the front doors had been the only entrance he'd seen. More than likely, his contact would be coming in through there.

As no one had come through yet, he took the time to settle down and ordered a shot. As he lifted the drink to his mouth, he ducked his head down and took a whiff, before wrinkling his nose. This whiskey was a far cry from the bright firewhiskey he loved. Muggle beverages were to dense and strong for even the most toughest wizard. Most likely, the non-mage humans could only suffer through them due to their obvious lack of a magical core. He could see no other explanation for the two rowdy young men to his left, a few meters away, happily downing shot after shot of alcohol. He sighed, setting his glass down at peering at the spell-backed "digital" watch on his wrist. Yes. There, it was 6:59.58. Shouldn't they be here by now...?

As his watch silently vibrated, telling him that it was 7:00 exactly, he heard someone say, "Hm. I thought you'd be more of a challenge to sneak up on. Guess I was wrong."

He jumped as the hooded person who'd been sitting next to him(he hadn't even noticed them come through the door! How long had they been there?) reached over and snatched his drink away. The rim of the glass disappeared under the shadows that swan beneath the black cloaks hood, and the wizard present heard the other take a breath. "Oh, whiskey? C'mon, this _can't _be too _strong_ for the oh-so _powerful_ wizard, can it?"

Said wizard chose to politely ignore the mocking tone, and instead focused on how young the voice sounded. Like a teenager, really. He should know, he had a sixteen-year-old son that attended Hogwarts. Except, this voice lacked the tell-tale sneer that accompanied his boy's words. This voice was more... confident, and sure. He couldn't help but admire the indescribable strong aura that rolled off the mysterious person in waves.

Quickly overcoming his sudden surprise, the wizard held out his hand. "Hello. You are Quickfire?"

The other scrutinized his outstretched hand, then pointedly ignored it as he instead lifting his hooded head to supposedly look into his face.

He pulled his hand back, slightly miffed, but continued. "I am Darkmage, as you most-likely already know. I am here for the negotiations for the Demon/Dark-Wizard alliance."

The Demon—Quickfire—nodded, downing the shot of strong whiskey in one gulp. He slammed the glass down on the counter, alerting a nearby server, who came over to retrieve it. "Would you like a refill, sir?"

Darkmage pinched the bridge of his nose as the Demon ignored the fact that the whiskey was actually his, and nodded at the barista. "_Tá_. One more for my friend here, and a glass of milk. My throat is hot from the alcohol."

She blinked. "Of course. One moment, please."

"_Go raibh maith agat_. (Thank you)" The mysterious other told her, and the girl beamed.

"_Tá tú fáilte roimh an-, a dhuine uasail! _(You are very welcome, sir!)"

"Bloody awful weather here, I don't know how you manage." Once the barista left with the empty glass, Quickfire turned back to him with a lazy smile. "So, let's get started. Your "Dark Lord" wishes for help from the demon forces, yes?"

The wizard sat up. "You are correct. We are, right now, in the middle of a war against the Light, which is lead by a wizard named Albus Dumbledore."

"Ah, yes, him." The demon mused, apparently recognizing the name. "Albus Percivul Wulfric Brian Dumbledore. Quite the mouthful."

Darkmage nodded again. "Yes. And our forces, the Dark, is led by my lord, Voldemort. More often now called by his true name, Tom Riddle."

"French, huh." Quickfire leaned back in his chair. "Alright, tell your lord's reasons for wanting the aid of the Demons of Netherworld."

Darkmage raised an eyebrow at the name, but decided not to question it. Since that article about the missing Harry Potter in the Daily Prophet, Tom had declared war on the Light wizards—namely, Dumbledore. That war had been going on now for over a decade, and the odds had wavered from side to side many times; the Light side had proved resilient, instead of the quick victory that the forces of the Dark Arts had been expecting. They'd fought hard, and dirty, and each captured Death Eater was tortured for inside information. And if that Death Eater had no information, they were tortured until death. Those who did have information, however, kept their mouths shut tightly, choosing death over betraying their lord and friends—their family. An alliance with the Werewolves and Vampire nations had turned the tide for the past few years, but now the Light was coming forth with heavy blows, apparently having struck a deal with the Goblin Empire, as well as many centaur tribes, and the Dark needed a powerful ally if they wanted to break off the present and wavering stalemate in their favor. However, the Light had supposedly made a large mistake when a few of their forces attacked a colony of vampires, killing off several of the innocents. This had angered the half-immortal race into taking an active part of the war. And soon the Dark Lord was told of the Demon Realm, and their powerful warlocks and warriors. The vampires had known very little of the Netherworld; but they'd said that this mysterious and powerful Empire had never lost a war, much less an important battle. So, after reading as much as he could on information concerning the unknown race, which was shockingly very little, Voldemort and his Inner Circle had decided to ask for their help. He'd scheduled a meeting with some sort of demon ambassador, it seemed, and had sent one of his more loyal followers under the alias of Darkmage. And this moment, in the Dice Cafe's tavern, was what all those events had led up to.

Darkmage relayed this information to the Demon negotiator, excluding some details of course(honestly, he didn't _really_ need to know that an article in the newspaper technically started a war, did he? Of course, that meant leaving out the roles of Lily, James, and young Harry Potter, but come on. The boy had been missing for the last eleven years. His disappearance and the attack done on his parents wasn't really a key factor in the war any more, was it?), and by the end of his small speech, Quickfire was nodding his head, mouth pulled into a thin line.

"I see," He said, simply.

Darkmage was a bit nervous. Had he said something wrong, offensive to the Demon, or his race in general? God, he'd never dealt with demons before...

The barista chose this time to come back with their drinks, and Quickfire sent her a small smile. "**Thanks, hun**."

The girl blushed slightly, curtseying before handing Darkmage a new whiskey glass. "**Feel free to ask for more, sir!**" She told the still-hooded demon before scurrying off.

"Aright," Quickfire turned back to Darkmage at last, taking a deep drink of the cool milk that swirled in his glass.

Darkmage took a breath. "Er, may I ask, sir, what... kind of demon are you?" In the books he'd helped his lord study about demons, they'd read that there were different types; usually crossed with an animal of some sort, but there were also ones that were half of a mythical creature.

Quickfire smirked, setting his glass down on the counter. "Cat demon. Here, I'll show you." And with that, he lifted his hood away.

Darkmage was struck speechless. This demon, with such a powerful aura—was a teenager? No, he looked even younger. The dark wizard couldn't quite place his age, but his features were otherworldly, even for magical means. Of course, he should have been expecting that, but he was still surprised. And it was hard to surprise Darkmage, it really was.

Quickfire leaned forward, hands pressed over his head, and Darkmage stole a look to see what he was covering up from the others in the bar. What he saw shocked him even further. Ears! Of course, everyone had ears, but these were _cat _ears. As black as Quickfire's hair, so they blended in well, and he probably wouldn't have even seen them if not for the soft pink undersides.

The now discovered Cat Demon sent him a quick smirk, before leaning back and—suddenly, his hood was covering his hair again, but no longer were their shadows darkening his facial features. Darkmage had a feeling that if that barista came back over, her eyes would pop into hearts when she caught sight of her customer's true looks. He just seemed to be the kind of teen that would have a lot of...fan clubs.

Golden eyes surveyed him, and Darkmage felt himself sit a bit straighter. "A-Anyway, do you have any demands? My lord is willing to... offer anything within reason for your cooperation."

"Mhm..." Quickfire took a sip of milk, and swallowed before answering. "My King did say something about wanting to know the benefits of our alliance, if he was to agree. He was talking about getting his song, the Prince, to learn a little Wizard Magic. Something about a secret weapon if any of the other Realms chose to declare offense at the Netherworld. He also wants you and your Dark Lord to know that we will accept nothing less than complete sovereignty over our troops, if we do chose to send them." The pale skinned feline leaned back on the stool he was sitting on to view Darkmage's response.

Darkmage was impressed, though he tried his to his utmost power not to show it. Although what the teen had told him were nonetheless demands, they'd been carefully worded not to seem as such. They even seemed rather reasonable, save for the last, which he was sure might cause a few objections from the more egoistical Dark Art users of The Dark Lord's followers. He could already tell that the boy—no, the young man—was smart, and probably powerful as well. No wonder the Demons had sent him for their side of the negotiations. He was nothing less that a prodigy, it seemed.

He opened his mouth, sniffing his glass again, before setting it down with a slight green color tinging his cheeks. "Your King will retain his sovereignty that I can personally guarantee, though there may be a few objections from the more power-hungry ones in our numbers. His son will receive his education in wizarding magic but he will need to have the ability and aptitude for it. I don't know how Demonic magicks are different from ours so I can't really say what will happen when he tries it." Here, Quickfire smiled mysteriously, but didn't comment. "I shall confer with my lord on what to do about his lessons or such."

Quickfire was silent for a moment, as he quickly downed the rest of the milk in his glass. Then, "Well, I believe you have yourself an alliance, human."

Darkmage blinked in complete surprise, not bothering to mask his emotions this time. "I—w-what? I do?" He hadn't thought it would be this easy.

Quickfire smirked. "Of course. I do suppose we Demons work a bit differently than you humans do. You didn't really think my King would send any lowly subject or ambassador to negotiate an alliance between two Realms, much less the _Human_ Realm, did you? He gave me full power to decide whether or not to agree to ally with your "Dark side" once I heard your terms and offers." The feline slipped off the stool, reaching out a hand to shake his, something he'd refused when they'd met. "I can sense that your intentions are to stop countless unnecessary deaths. I believe that my King would almost gladly help your Dark. After all, with our power and might, we have much to gain, little to lose."

Darkmage quickly composed himself again, reaching out to accept the offered hand. "My lord will be very happy to hear of this latest development. I believe he will most likely want to meet you in person before everything is official, as well as your Prince to discuss learning our magic. Shall we schedule another time to meet, Quickfire?"

The Cat Demon stretched almost like a...well, a cat. "No need. I'm sure I'll be able to handle it." He sat back down and smiled that mysterious smile. "Anyway, is there anything else I should be informed about before we continue this?"

Darkmage took a moment to think.

_**-With Quickfire-**_

When Damian had entered the tavern, he'd been extremely nervous about the scheduled meeting. His contact was to be a human, one of the magical ones. Sure, part of his training had been human etiquette, so he should have been perfectly fine for this negotiation, like he'd been with all the others before it, but he shouldn't couldn't shake off his fear of humans completely. So he settled for hiding it behind a strong, almost arrogant mask.

The wizard, calling himself Darkmage, was wearing a cloak like him, only brown, and sat at the corner of the bar, away from the other groups. It had been ridiculously easy to single him out. Even more so to sneak up on him. Once he'd noticed that the man had a weak stomach—he could barely stand one of the weakest whiskeys Damian knew—he stole the glass and downed the alcohol to save the wizard the trouble of trying to impress him—since that is what Damian knew the man was trying to do, even if the human himself didn't realize it.

Then there was the barista. She was just a normal human, like his late, non-demon relatives had been, but she wasn't so bad. In fact, she'd acted much like many of the female demons that were always chasing after him for some unknown reason.

After he'd finished negotiations with "Darkmage," he felt a bit better about this whole thing. His fears were still there—in fact, the crowds of humans that surrounded them were making them a bit worse—but he thought that, he was tough. Like Caden said, he could manage.

So he'd gotten comfortable enough that he'd showed the wizard his ears, once he'd asked what his Demon type was. Carefully obscuring them from the regular mortal humans, of course. You couldn't really tell they were there unless his wasn't trying to hide them and you saw the undersides, so it was really easy.

After listing the demands for the Demon's cooperation, he'd confirmed the alliance, shocking Darkmage into silence along the way. Apparently, the wizard hadn't anticipated "Quickfire"(that was the nickname given to him by his weapon's trainers, and his battle comrades due to his master archer abilities, as well as the alias he'd used for this meeting) to have that kind of power. Of course, any _normal _Demon negotiator might not, but Damian _was_ the Prince, after all. Though, he decided not to tell the wizard that, just yet.

He had his suspicions about the war, however. Darkmage had seemed to withhold some information that he'd apparently deemed unimportant. It had taken a while, but Damian eventually figured out what it might have been. According to "Darkmage," the Magical's war had begun the day after his fake birthday—July 31st, the one Caden had told him about on his seventh birthday, which had been held on the true one, Halloween. Apparently, the magical people that had taken him to his relatives had changed his birth records for some reason. Thankfully, King Richard would kill himself with a butter knife before forgetting the birth date of his only son.

Back to the subject at hand, however; If the war began the day after his fake birthday—his fake _eleventh_ birthday—then it must have been pushed into action due to his disappearance, right? After all, eleven was the age that wizarding children were admitted into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, wasn't it? That probably be the time the Magical world would have been made aware of "Harry Potter's" absence.

So, in theory... This whole war was because he'd left? At least, that's what pushed the Dark side into fighting the Light? Damian mentally shook his head. _Hush, Damian. Flatten that ego. They didn't start a war just 'cause you went M.I.A. They probably forgot all about you! Seriously, just leave it alone. _He decided he would. Just until he got more information...

He shook his head, barely, then sent a mysterious-looking smile in Darkmage's direction after he'd stretched a bit. "Anyway, is there anything else I should be informed about before we continue this?" He asked.

Darkmage settled back on his bar stool, and looked like he was thinking things over. It was taking a bit long, so Damian decided to call that barista over to refill his glass of milk.

"_Does your friend not like his beverage, sir_?" She asked him in Irish. He was turned away, hood shadowing his eyes once again.

He looked over, and saw that Darkmage's glass was still full. "_Actually, I think he just can't stomach it._" He replied in the same tongue, unknowingly making her smile larger. "_I believe he was trying to impress me for some reason. It didn't appear to work out, though._"

She nodded. "_Oh, okay. Did you want something_?"

"_Yes._" He answered immediately, handing her his empty glass. "_Do you think you could get me some more milk? My throat still hurts, and I don't think I can drink any more alcohol tonight_." That was a bit of a lie. Sure alcohol burned, but milk tasted _way_ better. He just thought that it might have seemed strange to the humans if he ordered milk at a bar for no apparent reason other than liking it better.

"_Yes sir._" She reached for the glass, and he looked up then, smiling in thanks. When she took it, however, she cast him a look, then froze as her eye widened. He blinked, then frowned, slightly concerned. Had she seen his ears? He reached up a hand to see that his hood was still on. No, most likely she hadn't. "_Is there something wrong, miss_?"

She gulped, then shook her head quickly. "_U-um, no!_" Her voice was a bit squeaky, now. "_I'll just..._" She gestured wildly toward the glass in her hand, then scurried away, face beet red.

He tilted his head to the side, watching her go with a confused look on his face. Someone chuckled next to him, and he turned to see Darkmage smiling at him, looking amused.

"What—" Damian shook his head, sighing. "Nevermind. So, are you done thinking? That took awfully long..."

Darkmage had the decency to appear embarrassed at that remark, it seemed. "Er—no. I don't think there is anything more we need to discuss today. I shall go now to inform my lord that the Demons have agreed to aid us. My many thanks," he nodded at Damian, standing up.

Damian stood as well, shaking his hand. He pulled away from the wizard, hood shadowing his features yet again. "You are welcome, human," he said, a bit quietly. A confused look crossed Darkmage's face, before the man moved to leave.

"Wait!" He called, though the noise of the tavern almost overruled it. Darkmage turned around, blinking, and Damian smiled wryly. "Tell Tom I said "hi," alright Lucius Malfoy?"

"Darkmage" froze in shock as he heard his true identity spoken from the lips of "Quickfire." But before he could respond, or even think of responding, Damian was gone, moving to another seat on the other side of the bar, where he met again with the barista. Out of the corner of his eyes, he caught _Lucius_ looking wildly around for him, but appeared to have not seen where he'd gone, and left the tavern with a dazed look gracing his face.

"_Is your friend alright_?" The barista asked, blinking in confusion as the man stumbled out the door. Damian turned, letting go of his emotional mask and smiled shyly at her. She blushed.

"_I think his stomach may have been weaker than I thought. I will be sure not to bring him out drinking again. It doesn't seem to sit well with him, miss..._" He looked up, appearing embarrassed that he didn't know her name yet. "_Um..._"

"..._Oh!_" She smiled, cheeks tinged pink with a slight blush that he still couldn't figure out the reason for. "I-I amAmy_..._" She told him sheepishly, speaking in English.

"Damian," he shook her head quickly, before tugging his cloak around him tighter, trying to fight off the sudden shyness that enveloped him. Even though she was a human, Amy didn't seem at all that bad...

_**:3:65 AM, the next day:**_

_**-Dice Cafe Tavern, Rothlú Village, Ireland, Human Realm-**_

Amy Mills was a sweet, outgoing girl. Her father, Agil, was the owner of the _Dice Cafe_, and had given Damian a small discount for a room in the inn run the floor above the tavern. Amy had grown up in Ireland, though her parents were not natives. Agil had been born in America, and had traveled to Japan to attend college. He'd opened the first _Dice Cafe_ there, and had met his wife and Amy's mother, Lisbeth. The two had moved away from their friends to Ireland just before Amy had been born, because of a job offer. The job hadn't worked out, but Agil and Lis had fallen in love with the land, and the birth of Amy had only brought them more joy. They'd decided to stay in the end, speaking with their friends through a virtual reality gaming system invented in Japan, called the Amusphere, which was a improved model of NERVEgear. Of course, Damian had heard about the revolutionary gaming technology, and had even tried it out from the Wi-Fi connection in the Demon Realm. He'd loved it, since you were literally unable to become hurt, and the bodies there weren't _real_. It had given him a way to interact with the humans without feeling the familiar fear that seized him when their race was mentioned. He'd actually met Agil before, in a game called Alfheim Online. Though you were able to change your avatars looks from your real ones drastically—there was a rule against gender change, however—Agil had looked the same then as he did now. As did Lisbeth, actually, who Damian had also met before, online. Damian had chosen against changing his looks, and his avatar was a Cait Syth—which meant that he could wear his ears and tail. Even thought other avatars had none of those traits, not even retractable claws(which he found able to use as an in-game weapon), no one had looked at him strangely. Especially once he'd told them that he'd received them after a rare, individual Cait Syth-only quest. That had been a lie, though...

Anyway, Agil had introduced Damian—in the game, his username had been Quickfire, of course—to his friend, Kirito, once when they'd gone to the Capital City of Alfheim. An entirely black-clad Spriggan—his avatar race—with two swords crossed over his back, and black hair that laid flat and hung in his eyes, much like Damian's hair, only Kirito's was a lighter shade, and a few inches shorter. Back then, Damian had been extremely shy, only able to speak comfortably with Agil. However, Kirito, his sister, Lyfa, and his friends Asuna, Silica, Klein, and Sinon had welcomed him with opened arms, and had helped him out of his shell. Their friendship had meant a lot to Damian, especially since they were humans. They unknowingly showed him that not all humans were terrible, and had even rescued him when he'd been being bullied by some larger players. Damian had treasured their friendship greatly, but soon had to give up gaming due to how intensive his training had become. Perhaps, now that he'd completed his learning of the Demon Arts, he could start it up again...? Though, he was unsure whether or not he'd be able to, with the lessons in Wizarding magic he'd soon receive. Only time would tell.

Amy was ecstatic to learn that her father was friends with Damian, and had taken to showing him around the village of Rothlú. They'd talked much the night before, getting to know each other—though Damian had to keep his Demon heritage a secret, and had retracted his tail and ears from existence for now.

They walked down the cobblestone and marble streets toward _Ionad_. Agil and Lis had been overjoyed to finally meet him in real life, and they'd talked as well. Soon, the whole family agreed to meet together the next afternoon with their other friends in Alfheim, which was still regarded as the most popular virtual game, apart from Gun Gale Online, so their other friends could see Damian once again. Amy told him she had an extra Amusphere he could use. Damian had tried to tell them that they really didn't have to, but they had insisted. So he'd agreed.

"_That over there is where my friend Kinzie lives._" The girl spoke excitedly in Irish, pointing out a rather large mansion that was built on the outskirts of the village—though it almost towered over the other houses, along with a few other homes of it's size, so he could see it from the town square. "_Her father's the mayor of the entire village, actually, and she likes to help me wait tables at Daddy's cafe_."

Damian nodded, listening quietly as he learned about her other friends; Courtney, who lives near _Ionad_, and whose parents worked as secretaries for Kinzie's father; Katie, who lived near the large shopping district, and whose parents delivered mail; Hunter, who was a college student that lived with her other friend Zach, and whose parents were sports directors of the village's largest school; Zach, who was a elk hunter and military-obsessed American, who studied in the University near Kinzie's house, and whose adoptive parents lived all the way back on the west coast of the States; Lizzy, who lives near the grassy pastures that housed the village's cattle, and whose parents owned a large and popular antique shop in the nicer section of the shopping district; Hannah, who lived in one of the mansions, and whose parents owned a street barbeque company; Luke, from Portugal, who lived near the large lake that rested next to the village and to the right of the cattle pastures, whose parents were banking managers; Christopher, who lived near Katie, and whose father worked as a bartender—then the question rose: what about him? Where was _he_ from, what did _his _parents do, what kind of school did he attend?

"Amy," he said quietly, and she looked at him with those bright blue eyes that clashed with the coppery skin she'd gotten from her father, whose parents had been Mexican immigrants. He smiles shyly. "I, um.. I'm sorry. You were just talking so fast and I—Sorry. Go on," He looked down.

"Damian?" Amy said, and he looked up to see her blushing madly—which confused him greatly, but he decided not to point that out. "I'm sorry for talking so fast... Is it annoying?"

"Mm, no." He shook his head. "No, it's fine."

She breathed out a sigh—relieved? "Oh, okay. So..." He looked over at him as they walked down the streets of the shopping district toward _Ionad_. "Are you going to answer the questions?" They were speaking in English, now, which Amy seemed to be pretty fluent in.

"Oh! Um..." He looked down. "I'm from... England, actually. That's where I was born, but then my mother and stepfather... died and my father took me to live with him."

"Oh.." She seemed to look regretful. "I'm sorry.."

"N-no, it's okay," he smiled. "My father's place is great. It's like.. a palace," he covered his smirk as she looked at him with wide eyes. "We have a lot of money, since he's a rather... important person. As for the school question; I've had a series of private tutors ever since I was young—two-years-old, actually. I just graduated from my studies about a week ago, so I decided to go traveling and meet up with a few friends—though I'd never had guessed Agil and Lisbeth—your father and mother were here. That was a pleasant surprise."

"I see," she said, still looking a bit astonished. "What does your father do?"

"Mmm..." Damian had spoken as much the truth as he could manage, but this stumped him. What did his father do? He couldn't say he was a King, because that'd let her know he was royalty, and then things would get awkward, and she might ask what was he the King _of_, and then he'd really be in trouble. "He's a... The president," he decided, slightly disgusted that that had been all he could come up with. "He's the president of a... rather small national district."

Amy's eyes widened. "Y-Your father's the president of a _nation_?"

He almost gulped. "Y-yeah..." Damian looked at the ground shyly. "Um..."

Amy jumped up and down, "that is so _cool_!"

Damian smiled.

_**:9:12 PM, Same Day:**_

_**-In front of The Dice Cafe, Rothlú Village, Ireland, Human Realm-**_

Damian was a bit saddened that he was unable to go to Alfheim with the Mills family, being called back to the Demon Realm for something his father had forgotten to mention—Damian dreaded finding out what it was. What did he have to do _now_?—as was Agil, Lis, and Amy, but the latter had given him her extra Amusphere(her new one that she'd gotten for her birthday, Agil admonished, and Damian had almost refused to take it, but Amy had told him that she was more comfortable with her old one, and she hadn't even thought to use the new one yet—a lie, he know. The packages was already opened, and he could tell from her body language—blushing, biting her lip, and looking at the ground as she handed t to him—that she was giving it to him for a entirely different reason, but he didn't know what that reason _was_)once she heard that he'd lost his old one due to disuse, so that he could log on some other time and meet up with them again.

After tucking the Amusphere under is arm, Damian waved to the Mills and walked down the cobblestone street, a strange feeling in his chest. It wasn't the fear he'd been feeling earlier—he knew for certain that the Mills family would never hurt him purposefully. It was an emotion that he couldn't place, and that fact in itself scared him as well. In his training, he'd learned that he couldn't hid an emotion if he couldn't name it. And he'd thought he knew all the emotions he was able to feel. But what was this feeling? He didn't know. Did that mean he needed more training? He _needed _to be able to keep an emotionless mask on at times—that was a key factor in negotiations!

As he walked down the street, he didn't notice that he'd wandered into the more shady districts that Amy had told him to avoid—the one near the large university. Of course, he soon remembered her warning when he felt a hand reach out from the shadows and grab the collar of his cloak, pulling him roughly backwards. He cursed his deep thinking—heavy thoughts like that always stopped him from using his reflexes on time. He fell to the ground, grunting as his shoulder hit the cobblestone. He peered up, using his night-vision to see two young men looming over him with matching, Cheshire Cat grins.

"_Hey_," One of them spoke in Irish. "_Look what we caught._"

The one on the left cackled, reaching down to fasten a hold on Damian's collar. "_Awww... What are you doing out at night all alone, pretty boy?_"

As he was lifted up and slammed into the nearby brick wall of the small, abandoned alleyway, Damian shivered, feeling the familiar fear settle over him once again. These people were hurting him, almost in the same manner as the Dursleys and Dudley's friends had.

The man who'd spoken first pinned him against the wall with his hands, and stood about a foot away as his buddy looked over his shoulder. Both leered at him with a hungry look him their eyes. It made Damian squirm, but they had him in a grip that he couldn't get out of. He was forbidden to use Demonic Magic in front of humans—even for self defense, and he'd been tired out by the journey here, and the tense—for him—negotiations with Lucius Malfoy—he wasn't at his best. In fact, he was pretty exhausted; not good, for his current situation.

He blinked back at them, slightly dazed, and the man on the right—the one with the close-cut red hair and goatee—grinned darkly. "_Wonder what the pretty bird sounds like..._" He brought a clenched fist down on Damian's shoulder roughly, and Damian clenched his teeth, hissing.

The second man—a spiky blond with gleaming white teeth and blue eyes that glinted in the street lights off to their right—looked at his friend, with mock surprise. "_It don't seem like a birdie, Jhonn. This be a little kitten, I'd say._"

Damian let out a short mewling-like whimper, closing his eyes tightly as the two men laughed. "_You're right, Raymond!_" Jhonn exclaimed. "_A kitten..."_

Raymond stroked Damian's cheek, and the cat demon flinched. "_Pretty kitten,_" he purred. "_Why you so scared? We won't hurt ya..."_

Then, the two men laughed loudly, and Jhonn forced Damian back onto the ground, straddling him. Raymond knelt next to his face, putting his mouth near Damian's ear; as he spoke, his breath ghosted over the teen's face, and Damian shivered. "_Don't worry, kitten. Me n' Jhonn will make you feel __all__ better..._"

Then, Raymond was gone.

Jhonn looked around for his friend, confused, before he was roughly pulled off of Damian. The Cat Demon curled into a small ball as he heard smacking sounds, and rough grunts, and a voice growling, "_You two again? How many times do I have to tell you to stay the fuck away from here? Ya gotta damn rape everyone ya see? Assholes—_"

Damian shuddered as the fighting sounds stopped, and fast footsteps ran away from the alley. Heavy ones came toward him, however, and he curled tighter, whimpering. "_Hey kid, get up._" The voice that had been yelling in anger a short moment before sounded, gently, in Irish. "_Don't worry, they're gone._"

Damian slowly uncurled and sat up, eying the man warily. His fear of humans had come back full-force now, and the strange unnamed emotion from earlier, after he'd left the Mills, had vanished. The man kneeling next to him had chocolate colored, short hair cute military-style. He wore a white tee beneath a tan leather jacket, and camouflage cargo pants over black hunting boots. Silver dog tags hung from his neck, and Damian's sharp cat-like eye site saw contacts gleaming over the mans pupils, which were surrounded by soft brown irises.

"_Are you okay_?" The young man asked, and Damian saw that he was only a few years older than himself—but he stood almost four heads taller. Damian truly was _short_.

As the older male helped him up, Damian nodded shakily. "_Y-Yes. Fine..." _Once he stood firmly on two feet, he drew his hand back to his chest along with the other, and shied away from the man, who frowned.

"_I'm Zach_," he offered, leading the Demon Prince out of the alleyway. "_What's your name_?"

Damian's human ears twitched—much like his cat ones would, if they'd been out instead. "_You.. are Amy's friend_?"

Zach looked surprised. "_Amy Mills? Yeah, I know 'er. You another friend of hers_?"

Damian shook his head, looking at the ground. "_I do not know. I only just met her today. I am a friend of her parents, Agil and Lisbeth, though..._"

Damian felt his knees go weak, then—from his exhaustion, or from the shock of the events that had transpired that night, he didn't know—and Zach let out a surprised sound, lurching forward to catch him.

"_Hey, you okay?_" He asked, worriedly. "_They didn't get you...did they_?"

Damian knew he was referring to Jhonn and Raymond, and he shook his head quickly. "_No! They didn't...But, um, I was very...tired, earlier, and..._" His eyes fluttered dangerously then, as if to further prove his point, and Zach clicked his tongue, saying something under his breath in English that Damian couldn't quite catch, even with his advanced hearing.

"_Hold on, my apartments over here... Hunter's home, I think, so he can help. He usually does with all of Jhonn's victims I bring home; he's a great guy. Don't remember Raymond too well. I think he's new..._"

Damian would have rejected help from him if he'd been aware enough to walk on his own, but he was still frozen up from what had happened earlier, and couldn't really move—so he accepted Zach's help, even though he _was_ a human. Amy had said he was a nice person, though, right? So he should be okay for now...

"Hunter!" Zach called, as he entered an apartment, carrying Damian bridal style. "Hey, man, can you come help me for a sec?"

Footsteps sounded, and a young blond man Zach's age entered the room, wearing sweatpants and a dark navy, Harvard sweatshirt. When he saw Damian in his friend's arms, he quickly set his mug on the counter and advanced on the two.

"What happened?" He asked as he set Damian on the brown leather couch in the sitting room, a football game playing on the large screen TV.

Zach came over with a blanket, setting it over the now unconscious Cat Demon. "Jhonn got to him, with a new blond bastard called Raymond, They were about to feel the poor kid up when I came out to stop them."

Hunter leaned back on his heels, running a hand through his hair. "You should call Kinzie, man. Maybe she can get her dad to do something about that guy and his pals."

Zach shrugged, falling backwards into a leather chair. "I don't know. He's pretty busy nowadays, ya know..."

"These kinds of things is what he was elected for," Hunter told him, standing up to go retrieve his mug. "Call Kinzie."

"Maybe in the morning," Zach sighed. "But right now we gotta take care of this kid. Said his name was Damian. He's a friend of Amy's dad, apparently."

"Then you should call him," Hunter tossed him his cellphone.

Zach caught it tapping the screen with his finger before scrolling down and tapping on the name "Amy." "What if they're all in in Alfheim, though? You know they're all video gaming freaks."

Hunter shrugged. "It's worth a try, isn't it?" He said as he flopped down in his own chair and tuned back into the football game.

Zach sighed, lifting the device to his ear. "Hey, Amy? Yeah, it's Zach. Listen, I need to speak with your dad, gotta ask him a favor..."

_**:10:55 PM:**_

_**-Hunter and Zach's apartment, South Side of Rothlú Village, Ireland, Human Realm-**_

Agil stood over a sleeping Damian, a concerned look on his face. Amy had pleaded to come with him, but Lisbeth had told him to go while she and their daughter took care of the busy tavern. "It was good thing of you to call me, thank you boys." He told Zach and Hunter. Zach was now dressed similarly to his roommate, and sat back in his chair with a steaming mug of decaffeinated coffee in his hands.

"No problem, Mr. Mills," Hunter nodded. "Really, it's fine."

Zach smiled. "Yeah, I'm just glad I got to him when I did. Jhonn looked like he was really going all-out tonight. Damn bastard—"

"Language," Agil said sternly, then sighed, leaning over Damian before reaching out a hand to shake the teen awake.

"Nghn..." Damian shifted, then blinked open his eyes blearily. Agil knelt down next to him. "Damian, son, are you alright?"

"Huh..." The obsidian-haired teen looked around with a dazed look on his face, before shaking his head and looking up at Agil. "A-Agil? Why are... What happened?"

"You were almost raped," Hunter supplied in a monotone, and Zach whacked him upside the head, muttering something that sounded suspiciously like "have some _tact_, you moron" under his breath.

Damian blinked. "Raped... What—_oh_." His gold eyes widened, and he looked like he wanted to curl back into the ball that Zach had found him in. Agil nodded, a sad look in his eyes as he leaned forward to look Damian in the face. "Damian, are you okay?"

The teen blinked rapidly. "Yes. I'm... fine." Agil, Zach, and Hunter all looked as if they were completely unconvinced, so her hurried on in a quiet tone. "I-I need to go home.. My father will be extremely worried..."

Agil offered a hand. "I can take you, if you'd like, so you don't run into anymore guys like Jhonn and Raymond."

At the mention of the men who'd tried to molest him, Damian paled, but shook his head, shakily. "N-no. I think I'll be alright, thanks." He sent a shy smiled at Agil, and nodded at Zach. "Than you, again."

"No problem," Zach yawned, sitting back in his seat.

Agil left, throwing a concerned look in his direction, and a while later Hunter led Damian toward the door.

Just before he said goodbye, Hunter handed Damian a coat. It wasn't his cloak, that he'd worn earlier, but lost when he'd been attacked by Jhonn. It was a black long coat, with a silver symbol etched into the left shoulder. Hunter nodded. "Take it, it's cold tonight, and I've got plenty more."

Damian blinked, but slipped it on over his black long sleeved V-neck, and nodded. The coat went down to just barely above the backs of his knees, brushing up against his dark denim jeans. "Thank you."

Hunter waved that away. "No problem. Keep it." He shut the door, and Damian walked away.

He was much more alert of his surrounding as he wandered down the cobblestone streets now, making a large berth around the more shady district. After a while of walking without seeing anyone, he slunk into an alley and used the used the shadows to travel back to the Demon Realm, hugging the Amusphere box to his chest.

_**:Midnight:**_

_**-One of Damian's Rooms, the Palace Voidsurfer, Demon Realm-**_

Once back in one of his on rooms, feeling safer now that he was back home in the Demon Realm, Damian shakily set the box in the drawer of his black maple desk, and collapsed onto his bed, curling into a ball. He hid his face in one of his more softer pillows, and didn't move until all of his muscles had relaxed, and the shaking stopped—not even when someone knocked softly on his door. He gave no answer, and the person chose to come in without it.

"Damian?" Caden asked, his voice sounding surprised and worried. "Whats wrong?" He rushed over and sat next to his godson—he shared the place of Damian's godfather with a human named Sirius Black, and another less-mortal one named Remus Lupin—and touched the Cat Demon's shoulder gently, watching as Damian tensed at the contact. "Are you okay?" He asked hurriedly. "What happened, what's wrong?"

Damian sat up slowly, still trembling. "C-Caden..." He choked.

Caden's dark gray eyes were wide and filled with concern, and he reached out and brought the teen in for a hug. "Yes, Damian, I'm here. What's wrong? Did something bad happen?"

"I-I..." The cat demon shook his head rapidly, burying his face into Caden's chest.

"Dami," The older demon soothed,"it's alright, it's okay, you can tell me."

"... The human's _are_ mean, evil. Th-they hurt me..." The teen cried, after a while.

Caden stiffened. Really? He was hurt again?" Damian, what did they do? Are you okay?"

Damian nodded. "Mmm... Th-they almost raped me..." Caden froze, eyes wide. "—But then some other humans came and stopped them..."

"Damian, you're _positive_ you're okay?"

"Y-yes..." The Commander wasn't convinced. "Alright. I'm going to your father and telling him to call off this whole thing. This is bordering ridiculous—"

"Nnn-no," Damian tightened his grip on Caden's shirt, and the demon looked down, confused. "What do you mean, "no?" Damian, they almost _raped _you! That could happen again! I won't allow—"

"I'll be _careful_," Damian insisted, sitting up with a heavy sigh. "Really, Caden. I-I can take care of myself. Plus, I _want _to learn the magicks I got from my mother!"

"... Well," Caden said after a moment of silence, uncertainly. "I suppose... But I _will_ be telling your father about this, and if it happens again, I'm never letting you anywhere near the mere _mention_ of the Human Realm again, got it?"

Damian hiccuped, wiping the tears away from his eyes, and gave Caden a shy, watery smile. "Kay..."

"Alright. Get some sleep, I'm going to go talk to the King."

_**-Author's Note-**_

_**This chapter was longer than the others O_O My OCD killed me. I'm dead. But I'll come back to life so I can write more later, kay?**_

_**Alright, so excuse the slight merge with Sword Art Online, please! It just sort of wormed it's way in there without me noticing. Honestly. The only thing you really need to know about that is that I've switched around the dates a little. So The HP verse is a few years ahead into the future than it was in the books, and the SAO times are set a couple years to a decade back. SAO probably won't be a key factor to the plot, but I guess it's just there so that Dami can have a little downtime with some friends he trusts...Clear? Yeah, sorry abut that...**_

_**So, poor little Dami almost got raped by some Irish bastards(no offense to any Irish people out there!), and I really don't have a reason for that... Except., it helped me lead up to a point where I could take us all back to the Demon Realm and do some extra building of that setting. The Irish village of Rothlú was a product made entirely from my own imagination, so I own that... And, yeah. The language in italics is Irish, and the translations are in parenthesis right beside them... and the rest spoken in italics but written in English is also Irish, but I didn't write it in Irish, cuz Damian understands and can speak that language. Lucius doesn't know Irish(that I know of), so he didn't understand what they were saying. And yeah...**_

_**Anyway, Amy, Zach, Hunter, Kinzie, Katie, Courtney, Hannah, Christopher, Luke, and Lizzy aren't necessarily OC's... Cuz, their named after and based off of real people—my friends from school and church. Just church now, I guess, since I don't go to school anymore, really.**_

_**Anyway! Read and review~ It makes me happy and motivates me to write more ^ ^ I hope I didn't overdo this chapter... I think I did... ^ ^"**_

_**Platypuses!~**_

_**~EpikalStorms***_

**Next time, on Sors Daemoniorum: Damian meets up with some old friends, and plans are made involving the war at hand. Richard and Damian have some son/father bonding time, and the Demon-Dark Wizard negotiations are completed—resulting in a new alliance. Watch out, Light side! You're in for one hell of a ride!**


	4. Negotiations Completion, Human Friends

_**Last time, on Sors Daemoniorum:**_

_As his watch silently vibrated, telling him that it was 7:00 exactly, he heard someone say, "Hm. I thought you'd be more of a challenge to sneak up on. Guess I was wrong."_

…

_Quickfire was silent for a moment, as he quickly downed the rest of the milk in his glass. Then, "Well, I believe you have yourself an alliance, human."_

…

_"Wait!" He called, though the noise of the tavern almost overruled it. Darkmage turned around, blinking, and Damian smiled wryly. "Tell Tom I said "hi," alright Lucius Malfoy?"_

…

_"Damian?" Amy said, and he looked up to see her blushing madly—which confused him greatly, but he decided not to point that out. "I'm sorry for talking so fast... Is it annoying?"_

…

_Then, the two men laughed loudly, and Jhonn forced Damian back onto the ground, straddling him. Raymond knelt next to his face, putting his mouth near Damian's ear; as he spoke, his breath ghosted over the teen's face, and Damian shivered. "Don't worry, kitten. Me n' Jhonn will make you feel all better..."_

…

_Then, Raymond was gone._

…

_"I'm Zach," he offered, leading the Demon Prince out of the alleyway. "What's your name?"_

…

_"Hey, Amy? Yeah, it's me. Listen, I need to speak with your dad, gotta ask him a favor..."_

…

_It wasn't his cloak, that he'd worn earlier, but lost when he'd been attacked by Jhonn. It was a black long coat, with a silver symbol etched into the left shoulder. Hunter nodded. "Take it, it's cold tonight, and I've got plenty more."_

…

_"I'll be careful," Damian insisted, sitting up with a heavy sigh. "Really, Caden. I-I can take care of myself. Plus... I want to learn the magicks I got from my mother!"_

…

**Chapter 4**

_**:4:42 PM, The Next Day:**_

_**-One of Damian's Rooms, Palace Voidsurfer, Demon Realm-**_

"Link start."

Damian lay on his back, on the the silk sheets of his bed, in his room in the Palace. But his mind was taken from that place by the Amusphere placed on his head, and he was soon transferred to Alfheim Online, a world full of fairy-tales come to life—besides his usual, demon existence.

Colorful bands of a rainbow rushed at him, before a bright white light encompassed his vision. Soon, that dissolved, and he saw a menu floating before him. He reached out to touch the light keys with his gloved hands.

**Login: ***********

**Password: *********

He logged into his old account, Quickfire, and soon found himself in a grassy clearing in the middle of a forest. He thought back, and remembered that he'd been journeying toward the Central City, which surrounded the home tree, Yggdrasil, when he'd been logged out manually by one of his demon instructors, telling him that he needed to quit gaming in order to continue his training. He hadn't really wanted to, but what could he say? He was the Prince, after all. He couldn't just get lazy, could he?

He looked at his surroundings as all his past video gaming experience came back to him. He opened his Inventory, and was very surprised to find a slot labeled "Hunter's Jacket."

What was this from? He clicked on the slot, and a black long jacket shone into existence, falling on his shoulders. It had a silver symbol on the left shoulder—it was that coat that Hunter had given him in Ireland! But how was it in the game? Damian shook his head in wonder, taking a closer look at the silver symbol. It was a snake, arranged in a circle, looking as if it was trying to bite it's own tail, over two crossed swords. Nothing very fancy, but it might have held some sort of meaning to Hunter. He decided that he'd speak with Amy and ask her if she knew.

He strapped the coat closed and summoned his wings, which were the standard Cait Syth type. As he began flying again, he thought about what was happening back home. He'd decided to go in-game in Alfheim Online a few minutes after Caden had left to talk with his father and inform the King of the dangerous thing that had almost happened to his son. Damian hadn't really wanted to go with him, and he didn't want to see what his father did in the aftereffects of that discussion, so he'd decided to escape reality for the time being.

_It's not running away..._ He thought to himself, shaking his head._ I'm not running, I'm just... _

But he didn't know what he was doing. If he wasn't running away by doing this, then what _was_ he doing?

As he finally came upon the Capital City, he smiled slightly. The beauty of the scene always managed to take his breath away. The lights shone like Christmas even in the middle of the day—climate and time copied the central Time in Japan, which was close to the time of day in the Demon Realm. The buildings and roads spiraled upward, and he just couldn't get used to that amazed feeling he always got, no matter how many times he saw it.

A notification popped up about a foot in front of him, and he looked down to see that it was a message from the player "Agil." He smiled softly, clicking on it with his gloved finger.

_To: Quickfire_

_Hey! Come to the same apartment we always used to gather at, Asuna and Kirito and the other are here. Lisbeth and Amy are working the cafe, though, and can't log in right now. We're all waiting for you!_

_From: Agil_

He sighed, dismissing the message and flying toward the northern section of the city, where Asuna and Kirito had bought an apartment about a year before he'd met them, so that they could live virtually with their A.I. daughter, Yui.

A few minutes later, and he found himself standing a bit nervously before a door. Before he could muster up the courage to knock, it flew open, and someone was pouncing on him with an ecstatic hug, knocking him over. "Quickfire! You were gone for a long, long, long, long time!"

He looked down do see Yui, looking exactly the same as he'd last seen her, hugging tightly to his waist. He smiled shyly. "Hello, Yui-chan. It's very nice to see you again, as well."

Many voices called happily out from the room behind the door, ranging from excited, to eager.

"Hey, Quickfire!" The red haired player named Klein hollered from the doorway. "Nice of you to finally join us! How've you been, bud?"

"Fine," he said quietly, as the older man ruffled his hair.

"Quickfire!" Silica cried, hugging him. "How are you? Where did you go? What did you do there?"

He opened his mouth to answer, but she pulled away and he was embraced tightly by a hazelnut-haired young woman that smelled faintly of pine needles. "Oh my gosh, Quickfire, hun, are you okay? Agil told us all about what happened, I'm so sorry!" Asuna spoke into his hair—he was _still_ smaller than her.

The others quieted down, and a black gloved hand landed on his shoulder. Damian turned shyly to see his long-time friend, Kirito, looking at him with serious obsidian eyes. "How are you?" He asked. "From last night, are you okay?"

Damian let out a small sigh, and looked at him, smiling very softly. "I—yes. I'm fine, thank you."

"Oh," Sinon sighed, giving him a short hug of her own once a teary-eyes Asuna let go of him. "Anything like that happens again, you just come and get us, okay? We'll shoot those bastards down."

Lyfa nodded, sniffing as she clung to his shoulder. "Yeah, 'Fire. You come straight to us, got it?" She looked him in the eye.

Damian gulped, shrinking back shyly from all the attention he was getting. He backed up, then bumped into something large and solid. He turned, and Agil smiled down at him gently. "I'm glad to see you're better. I didn't tell them your real name—do you want me to?"

"Um, a formal introduction?" The Cat Demon closed his eyes. "Sure." It was almost a whisper.

"Alright." Agil turned him around with a hand on his shoulder, toward the waiting group of people. "Guys, this is Damian. Damian," the black haired Cait Syth opened his golden eyes and looked up. "These are Kazuto," he pointed out Kirito, "Suguha," Lyfa, "Asuna Yuuki," Asuna, obviously, "Shino," Sinon, "Ryotaro," Klein, "and Kieko," he motioned toward Silica before giving him a smile. Each person waved as their name was spoken. "Suguha is Kazuto's sister—well, cousin, and I _think _she's in love with a school friend." Lyfa looked away, face pink. "Kazuto and Asuna are engaged, finally—" At this, Agil rolled his eyes and everyone else cheered as the couple in question blushed, and Damian gave them a small smile. "Ryo's still single and alone—" Klein let out an outraged cry, looking affronted. "I really don't know about Shino. You can never be too sure of her—" Sinon blushed. "—And out dear little Kieko is not allowed to date."

"Says who?!" Silica cried, looking insulted.

"Says us," everyone else chorused, and they broke into laughter as the young teen crossed her arms and huffed, turning away.

"And," Agil continued, "you of course know adorable Yui. Kirito and Asuna's baby girl."

Yui blushed, hitting the man softly on the arm. "Not a baby, Agil-kun!" She cried, crossing her arms and turning away as she tried to copy Silica's exasperated moves. This made everyone laugh harder as they moved away from the door toward the sitting room.

Damian smiled softly as he sat down in a comfortable chair, leaning back and watching his human friends have a good time conversing. He was lucky to have met them, really.

_**:5:00 PM, Same Day:**_

_**-Slytherin Manor, Location Unknown, Human Realm-**_

Lucius sat down in a leather armchair next to the fire, in a sitting room to the north of the mansion, awaiting his lord. He didn't know where the Slytherin Manor was, and most of the lower Death Eaters didn't even know that their Headquarter _was_ Slytherin Manor—only Lord Voldemort knew it's location.

"Lucius," Tom spoke, and the man in question jumped in surprise, turning to see his lord standing just behind him. Voldemort strode over the carpet to sit down in the armchair across from him, crossing his legs once he'd sat down, and looked at his right hand man expectantly with his hands clasped together—altogether looking more pleasant than the world gave him credit for. Of course, the world didn't know that their "Evil, Dark Lord" now looked like a handsome, charming, and aloof heartbreaking teenager. "Why are you back so soon? Do you have important news to share? Did something happen?"

"No," Lucius replied, leaning back in his chair. "Actually, the negotiations was a success."

"Oh?" Tom raised an elegant eyebrow, accepting a cup of tea of a platter that had arrived with the smiling house elf—all of which, of course, were treated comfortably; a far difference from the most likely laboring conditions that the Hogwarts elves were forced to endure.

Lucius nodded, accepting a cup as well. The elf placed the platter on the coffee table between the two men, before bowing toward each of them, and promptly disappearing. "Quickfire told me that he had the power to decide on whether or not the Demon Realm would ally with us. I suspect he is a powerful individual in his home."

Tom sipped his tea, looking thoughtful. "Indeed, as it seems. Tell me, have you found out anything more of the Demons while meeting with one? You are, after all, the first human in over a thousand years—if I remember correctly—to come face to face, knowingly, with a Demon."

Lucius seemed to sit a bit straighter in his chair. "As a matter of fact, I did. I believe that, sometime during the middle of the conversation, I'd garnered the Demon's trust somewhat. He told me what type of Demon he was, and showed me one of the characteristic traits that side gave him."

Tom leaned forward in his chair, interested. He set his teacup back onto the platter, and steepled his fingers. "Did you, now? Tell me, what did you learn?"

"He is a Cat Demon. Quickfire, at least. He had two, black cat ears atop his head that blended in astonishingly well with his hair color."

"Fascinating..." Tom mused. "Of course, this was to be expected. Even so—it still peaks my interests. Did they make any demands?"

"Of course," Lucius replied. "Nothing unreasonable, I assure you. There was one, however, that caught me off guard."

"Which was?"

"The Demon King wishes for his son to learn the arts of Wizarding magicks."

Tom raised a chiseled brow. "Oh? And why would that be?"

"I am unaware of the reasons, but he did mention something about using the magic as a secret weapon against enemy realms." Lucius set his teacup down. "I told him that I wasn't too sure the Prince would be able to use our magicks, but Quickfire just smirked at me, like he knew something I didn't—which is most likely true."

Tom sat back, a pondering expression gracing his face. After a moment of silence, he spoke, "Well, I don't see a problem. This Prince could come to Slytherin Manor for lessons, I suppose. As for the other demands—" He cast a look in his friends direction.

Lucius nodded. "Really, the only other request was complete sovereignty over all Demon forces they choose to send us."

"That is acceptable." Tom said, finally. "Great work, Lucius. I'm compliment your negotiation skills. It appears the meeting went through without a hitch, then?"

The blond an had the decency to blush. "Really, it was mostly Quickfire's work. I was impressed by him, honestly. It was no wonder that the Demons sent him to represent the entire Realm. He was nothing less than a prodigy despite his apparent young age, which seemed to be between fourteen or eighteen years,—" Tom raised an eyebrow. "—and I couldn't help but notice the raw power that literally rolled off of him in waves."

"Power?" Tom questioned, looking curious.

"Indeed," Lucius replied, and then he went on to explain, in depth, everything he'd observed about the Demon, up until the last two which had confused and stunned him the most "—and then, my lord, when I moved to leave, he stood up with me and offered his hand to shake. I accepted, of course, though it surprised me, since he'd refused my own offer at the beginning of the meeting. Though, what confused me the most was, now that the negotiations had ended, he seemed quiet, shy, and reserved—a vast difference from the confident and bordering on arrogant persona he'd had throughout the conversations."

"That does seem a bit strange," Tom agreed, "but, I'm thinking that, perhaps, that first personality was only just a mask, so that the negotiations would go smoothly?"

"It seems," Lucius nodded. "And lastly—and this quite shocked me, sir," Tom leaned forward once more, interested in what was about to be said. "As I was leaving, Quickfire called out to me, and said to me, "Tell Tom I said "hi," alright Lucius Malfoy?" I must say, my lord, this caused me to feel quite uneasy." Lucius shifted in his seat.

Tom frowned. "And understandably so, my friend. If this Quickfire knew of your name, what else may he know that we are unaware of? This is slightly worrisome." The young-looking Dark Lord shook his head, before looking up. "Was there something else? You didn't seem to be finished..."

Lucius nodded. "Yes. Once he said that, I was shocked, and quite rightly so. I turned fully to go back and question him on his true knowledge—politely, of course," He hurried on, seeing the disapproving look his lord was sending him, "after all, I _had_ just finished negotiating with the Demon. But when I tried to find him, I couldn't. It seemed that he'd just up-and vanished from my sights."

"How peculiar." Tom agreed. He went on to discuss a few points with Lucius, before deciding on something. "Alright, then, my friend. I shall pen Quickfire that the alliance contract has been completed, and have an owl bring the message to the coordinates he gave us before meeting for negotiations. Good work."

Lucius nodded, standing up to leave. Tom called out to him as he reached the doorway to the sitting room. "Oh, and do send in Remus when you leave. I have something I must speak with him about."

"Of course, my lord." Lucius agreed, before disappearing from the room.

Tom sat back in his chair, and waited.

_**:Four Hours Later, Same Day:**_

_**-Kirito and Asuna's Flat, Central City, Alfheim, ALfheim Online-**_

_**(Damian's room, Palace Voidsurfer, Demon Realm)**_

Quickfire sat curled up in his chair, almost sleeping. He didn't appear to notice the way the others kept sending him quick glances and smiling when they looked at him. Sometime ago, someone had come over and set a blanket over him, and he would have thanked them if he wasn't half asleep. Soon enough, he fell into unconsciousness—his breathing evened out, and his eyelids stopped fluttering. They did their best to keep conversation at a low volume after that.

"He hasn't really grown much," Klein observed, looking Damian over, while Lyfa scoffed and hit his arm.

"Klein! Try being a bit more, oh I don't know, polite?" The blond seethed, frowning.

Klein shrugged, rubbing his now sore shoulder. "Okay! Whatever.. But, seriously! He, like, hasn't gotten _any_ taller! I could say he almost looks the same as the _last_ time we saw him, but that would be lying. He much more tan, and he's got more tattoos than before."

Kirito nodded, stretching. "Yeah. Klein's right—" Sinon groaned, hitting him upside the head. He glared at her. "What? I'm not trying to be impolite or anything! It's true! He's still as small as Yuuki was!"

"Ah," Agil nodded. "Yes. Absolute Sword _was_ a petite, adorable, child but," here, he smirked teasingly, "I do remember, Klein, that she beat you quite humiliatingly."

The redhead groaned. "See, Kirito? Why did you have to go and bring _her_ up?"

Asuna made a small, disapproving noise in the back of her throat, and the conversation was immediately brought back to Damian. "Remember that time we saved him from those bullying players, back when we'd just met him?" Silica asked.

Sinon nodded. "I was surprised, but you really couldn't expect any less from most Salamanders."

_Asuna and Kirito were just sitting down in their apartment in the Central City, along with their friends—sans Agil and Silica, who hadn't made it to the Capital yet—when a message popped up before Kirito._

_The others glanced at it curiously, and the black-clad Spriggan clicked on it. "It's from Agil," he told them, sounding surprised. "He says he needs some help. He just met a very young looking player, and was about to come here, leaving the player on his own like he'd asked, when a large group of Salamanders ganged up on him due to his small size." Asuna, Lisbeth, Sinon, Klein and Lyfa all scowled in dislike. Salamanders were a red-themed avatar race which usually wore armor. They always seemed to be the rough-soldier type, and most of the Salamander players were arrogant, selfish, and thought themselves to be superior to other races, picking on anyone who wasn't a Salamander, and usually PK-ing(player killing) weaker players. Kirito went on. "Agil says the player is almost as small as Silica. He's sent the coordinates, let's go."_

_Kirito and his friends could almost be viewed as some sort of anti-bullying squad. They stuck together and stood up for other players who were being mistreated, and went out of their ways to help those in need, or save players and people in tight situations._

_The coordinates Agil had sent them happened to be just outside of the Central City. It took them all less than three minutes to fly there. They scouted the area, and looked up in time to see a large group of almost ten Salamanders surrounding a small Cait Syth—the player was different from most Cait Syths, as they had black cat ears, and a tail._

"_Isn't that odd, though?" Klein asked them all. "I mean, I don't think I've seen _any_ other players with that kind of ears, or a tail."_

"_All Cait Syths have cat ears and a tail, Klein," Sinon deadpanned, waving her own. "It's just, non of them are black like that. His match his hair _perfectly_—a trait that no players able to get before. And his wings are Cait Syth, but their shaded a bit like Spriggan—It makes me wonder whether or not he's found a way to become some sort of hybrid."_

"_Kirito, can you see who he is?"_

_The Spriggan nodded, squinting. "The player's name is Quickfire. His level is actually pretty high... Can anyone spot where Agil went?"_

"_He's over there," Lisbeth pointed out. Sure enough, Agil was crouched behind a cliff face, not far from the Salamanders that were terrorizing the small Cait Syth. He was waving them over frantically. They flew low and sidled up next to him. Klein, being the groups only Salamander player, wanted to go straight over and try getting his fellow race members to lighten up, but Agil held him back, saying, "They're some of the higher up Salamanders. Being pretty nasty to the little guy. They won't listen to you, Ryo, they know all about you."_

"_Agil's right," Asuna said, sounding frustrated. "You'll only get picked on too."_

"_We need to find a way to sneak up on them, and attack as a group. That way, we'll have an advantage." Kirito crouched next to them. _

"_This cliff continues on to the other side of the clearing." Agil told them. "We can make our way behind them by staying below the top of the cliff face, and then we can ambush them."_

"_We'd better hurry," Sinon observed. "They're starting to get rough, look."_

_It was true. One of the Salamanders, appearing to be the leader, had grabbed "Quickfire" by the neck, and was making way to throw him._

"_Lets go." Kirito said. The friends flitted down beneath the top of the cliff and skimmed over to the other side. Once they were grouped together again, the Spriggan counted down on his fingers from three. As soon as he'd put his ring finger down, they attacked._

_The Salamanders shouted out in surprise, and two of them were quickly killed, their "Remain Fires" flickering fiercely. Lisbeth teamed up with Asuna, taking on another, and Kirito went after one who was trying to flee as Klein brought his sword down heavily on the leader's neck, causing him to drop the Cait Syth in his hands. Quickfire appeared to be too shocked to even remember he had wings, so Agil zoomed down and caught him before he could fall any further and hit the bottom of the cliff._

_Soon, only two Salamanders remained, and they happened to be the strongest—working as a pair. Kirito was having trouble defeating them, even though he and his friend outnumbered them three to one. Agil was flying away from the fight, with the Cait Syth in his arms, and Lisbeth was pinned under a fallen tree, Asuna trying to get her free. Sinon was holding up Klein, who's HP was dangerously low—the Salamanders apparently had felt betrayed that one of their own kind had attacked them, so they'd focused mainly on him, dealing out heavy hits._

_Suddenly, a high-pitched war cry sounded, and everyone turned to see another Cait Syth with amber eyes dealing a fatal blow to one of the remaining Salamanders. He yelped in surprise, before flickering away into a Remain Fire. The last Salamander growled angrily at the amber eyed Cait Syth, lifting her weapon and moving to attack. _

"_Silica!" Kirito shouted, and the Cait Syth nodded, moving out of the way. Kirito flashed forward and soon, the female Salamander was only a red-tinted Remain Fire._

_The group of friends touched down onto the ground, and rushed over to help lift the tree off of Lisbeth. Asuna healed up Klein while Sinon, Kirito, Silica and the others sat down on the ground with a huff, panting. They grinned at each other, and Klein raised a fist. "Whoohoo! We showed _them_."_

"_Hey, where's Agil with Quickfire?" Kirito asked, looking around._

"_Here," a deep voice sounded, and everyone stood up and went over to where Agil was kneeling, with the black-themed Cait Syth in his arms. The small player was hiding his face in his hands, shaking slightly._

"_Who's that?" Silica asked, sounding curious._

"_Agil met him about an hour ago. He was about to leave him and come to the apartment when a bunch of Salamanders attacked the little guy. His name's Quickfire." Kirito told her._

_The amber eyed player frowned. "That's a strange username."_

_Asuna shrugged, rolling back her shoulders. "Yeah. So is Silica."_

"_It is not!" The girl pouted, crossing her arms._

"_Hey," Sinon nudged the player Agil was carrying. "Are you okay?"_

_Her response was a small squeak, and the player shrank away from her hand. Sinon raised her eyebrows. "What? It's okay, I'm not gonna hurt you..."_

"_Here," Kirito said. "Why don't you put him down, Agil?" The large gnome nodded, leaning forward to set the silky-haired Cait Syth on his feet. As soon as he brought his arms away, though, Quickfire fell to his knees, his only support gone._

"_Whoa!" Klein darted forward, catching the player before he could fall. "What's up—Ohhh. Oi, Asuna! Come over here, this little guys HP is really low!"_

"_That's to be expected, really." The Undine huffed, tucking a strand of light blue hair behind her ear as she walked forward to check. "Those Salamanders were really pounding him down."_

_After a moment, she looked up. "Yui!" The small, navigation pixie fluttered out of Kirito's breast pocket. "Yes, Mommy?"_

"_How far away is the apartment from here?"_

_The tiny girl closed her eyes. "Only about three to five minutes. Two, if you're super fast."_

_Asuna nodded. "Alright. Agil, you wouldn't mind carrying him, would you?" Agil shook his head._

"_Okay, lets go."_

"He was so shy, then." Silica laughed.

"Still is," Sinon told her. "He's a little more open now, though. But I don't think what happened last night did that any good."

The others stopped chuckling. "Yeah, that was terrible." Lyfa sighed. "It was a good thing Amy's friend got to him when he did, though, wasn't it?"

"Zach's a good boy," Agil said, in that deep voice of his. "He's kept his eye on Jhonn for months now—I don't see why he doesn't just call Kinzie's father, Bill."

Agil was about to respond, when a quiet whimper resounded throughout the room. All eyes immediately turned toward Quickfire, who was clenching tightly to the blanket around his shoulders, a frightened look on his face.

"He's still sleeping..." Sinon commented, moving forward with the others.

"Nightmare?" Klein asked as they all rose from their seats and crowded around the couch.

"Hey, Quickfire." Silica shook the younger boy's shoulder. "Wake up."

Asuna and Sinon knelt down next to him just as Quickfire shot up with a strangled gasp, eyes wide.

"Whoa!" Kirito fell backwards, surprised. He'd been leaning over the smaller male. "What's wrong, 'Fire?"

Quickfire observed them silently, a slightly wary look on his face. He slipped back down in his seat, pulling the blanket up to his chin with both hands in fists. "Mmm..." He looked the the side, away from them.

"Quickfire?" Sinon cocked her head to the left. "You okay?"

He blinked, gaze shooting over to her. "Uh.. Hm? Oh!" His eyes widened. "Y-Yeah! I'm fine!" He gave them all a small, shy smile. "I fell...asleep?"

Yui nodded. "Uh huh. I think you had a bad dream." She came out of her tiny pixie form, flitting off of Kirito's shoulder in the process, and gave him a hug as soon as she was three-fourths his size again. "Are you okay now?"

He smiled, hugging her back. "Mhm, yes. I am fine. Thank you, Yui-chan."

"Hey..." Klein mused, tapping his chin while stepping away from the scene. "You really are small, Quickfire. You make Yui look like a middle schooler!"

The smaller boy blushed. "I am not _that_ small!"

The others all started to chuckle again, smiling. "Of course you are, shortie!" Silica ruffled his hair. "You're a chibi!"

"Yes!" Klein cried. "Chibi 'Fire!" He spread his fingers out in a picture frame-like gesture. "It's perfect!"

Quickfire let out a small, shy-sounded groan, sinking back in his chair with the blanket still covering his legs. Agil leaned forward, a calculating look on his face. "Hm, you're that small in real life, too—I guess I didn't notice, yesterday..."

"Seriously?" Kirito asked, surprised. "I thought that it was just a game feature. Isn't it impossible for someone his age to be so tiny?"

"Hey!" Quickfire pouted, crossing his arms. "I am _not_ that small!"

"Uh huh." Asuna didn't sound too convinced.

"Speaking of looks," Sinon said, thoughtfully, "I was wondering, Quickfire, how you managed to get an avatar like that. You're ears and tale stand out more than other Cait Syths', and I've never seen someone of that race with a Spriggan color-theme."

Quickfire blinked as, suddenly, everyone seemed intensely interested in what he was about to say. He fought back a small cough as his cheeks tinged a slight pink. "U-um, I don't know? My account was very expensive, though. Maybe I just bought an exclusive or something?"

"Hm," Kirito tilted his head." That doesn't explain the ears and tail, though. Didn't you say you got those on a quest?"

Quickfire shrank back. "Yeah. I didn't have anything to do, and I somehow did something to impress some type of "game master." They gave me a quest to do, and then I got the ears, tail, and some other things as a reward."

"You got those from a GM?" Silica sounded incredulous, while the others looked downright impressed. "Seriously? Wow!"

Yui had a small frown on her face, and didn't look very convinced, but Quickfire shot her a pleading look, and she didn't say anything.

Of course, Damian knew that Yui had almost Admin-like abilities in the game, so she'd be able to see if the traits were quest-rewards. If she took the time to look into it, the ear and tail stats would be labeled as "out of game features," and that would bring up a whole other world of questions.

There was a knock on the door, and Lyfa looked up. "It's Recon," She murmured, standing up.

"Your boyfriend?" Kirito teased, and the blond haired Sylph sent him an annoyed look before going to answer the door.

In came the green haired Recon, with Lisbeth the leprechaun, and Amy(in the game, her username was "Amani")the Imp. Both females let out matching squeals once they saw the black eared Cait Syth sitting on the couch. "Damian!" Amani shouted, pouncing on him. She wrapped her arms around his torso and buried her face into his chest. "Are you okay? Daddy told me what happened, since Zach called him on my phone and all, and _I'm so glad you're alright, I was so worried!_" By the time she finished speaking, she was speaking loudly in Irish, and everyone else in the room sans Agil, Lisbeth, Damian, and Yui looked lost, still smiling.

Imagine their surprise when Quickfire replied in the same language, a bright pink blush spreading across his face. "_Yes, I am fine, Amy. Thank you for asking. I appreciate your friend's help. Zach is a great person_."

She sniffed, nodding_. "Yeah... Hey, _isn't that Hunter's jacket?"

Quickfire blinked, noticing her change back to English. "I—yes. It is. He gave it to me once I left their apartment." Agil grinned knowingly, Kirito looked interested, but everyone else gained a confused aura—except Yui, who looked excited and amazed.

"How did you get it in the game?" Kirito asked, leaning forward.

Quickfire shook his head. "I do not know. I only logged in, an it was in my inventory."

"That's Hunter's work." Agil explained, and everyone turned to look at him. He elaborated. "See that silver symbol on the left shoulder?" They all nodded. It look like it came out of some folklore tale, about knights or something. "The emblems over some tech panel or something fancy like that—Kirito might know, maybe—and it connects with the nearest source of internet. So, I guess you got it via Amy's Amusphere. As long as you're wearing that in real life when you log in, or have it close, it should show up in your Inventory. I don't know why Hunter invented that, but he's got to have some reason, I guess. He's a pretty intelligent boy, even if he says he's not."

"Which he always does," Amy snorted," so there's really no use complimenting him on it. He'll just say "It's just a mini-project, or something. I'm a bit dumb, really.""Lisbeth tugged Amy off of the poor Cait Syth, and pulled him into her own embrace. "And we all know _that's _not true."

"Genius," Kirito breathed, inspecting the jacket with a look of awe on his face. Actually, it looked a bit like his black, midnight coat he'd worn back in Sword Art Online.

Asuna seemed to be thinking similar thoughts. "Hm," She grinned. "Doesn't it look a bit familiar?"

"Aha!" Klein cackled. "Kirito's big bad "Black Swordsman" cloak-thing!"

Quickfire chuckled softly while everyone else rolled their eyes.

"Nice one, Klein."

"Great wording."

"You smart one, you."

The red head looked annoyed. "Oi! Stop making fun!"

"Why, we'd never do that!" Sinon pressed a hand to her chest, feigning hurt. "Right, 'Fire?"

"Mm-no." Damian suppressed a smile. "Never."

"Honestly, Klein," huffed Silica. "I don't know why you'd ever even suggest such a thing."

They all broke into laughter, while Klein spluttered indignantly. Suddenly, a alarm-like noise sounded, and a screen popped up in front on Quickfire. He looked at them shyly. "I'm sorry. I have to go, Father wishes to speak with me..." He didn't look like he was looking forward to the conversation, for some reason—though, Kirito and Asuna could perhaps guess why.

"Alright," Sinon smiled at him. "It was nice seeing you again, Quickfire. Log in sometime soon and come meet with us again!"

Recon shook his hand as he stood up off the couch. "Bye, Quickfire."

The Cait Syth nodded politely. "See you soon, Recon."

After saying his goodbyes, Quickfire clicked on the blue"yes" selection with his black-gloved finger, and disappeared in a shower of shining crystals, which promptly vanished from sight.

"Alright," Yui turned to look at her two young parents, who blinked down at her, eyebrows raised. The small child crossed her arms, pinning every teen in the room with a pointed look "Homework time."

They groaned.

_**:11:34 PM:**_

_**-Damian's Room, Palace Voidsurfer, Demon Realm-**_

Damian opened his eyes to a concerned looking Caden Lightbane hovering over him. The older Demon moved back as he sat up. He pulled off the visor-like Amusphere and gave the Hawk Demon a slightly annoyed look. "What do you want?"

"Damian, I just finished speaking with your father." The kitten groaned, slumping back onto the bed and burying his face into the pillow. "He wished to speak with you."

"Can't he wait, or something?" The teen mumbled into his pillow, which he held tighter. "I don't wanna talk right now..."

"Please, Damian." said Caden quietly. "I believe it would be best if you obeyed. I don't think the news made him very happy."

"It's his fault, anyway." Damian growled out—but it didn't sound angry, really. He sounded more hurt, and confused than mad.

Caden was silent for a few minutes, and Damian sighed, getting up off the bed. He stretched like a cat, before stumbling around the chamber, gathering clothes. He stripped down to his boxers, and pulled on his usual attire while in the Demon Realm. Caden chose to speak up again just as the teen was fastening his quiver of steel arrows lopsidedly on his back. "I wasn't aware you'd gotten back into virtual gaming," the man said absentmindedly, fingering the Amusphere.

Damian looked up, and stared at Amy's gift. After a moment, he walked over and picked the controller up, setting it back in the drawer next to his bed. "I just started again, actually."

Caden hummed. "This device looks newly bought. What happened to your old one?"

"I lost track of it once my instructors told me I should stop and focus more on my training. This one was a gift from Amy Mills, a human in Ireland. I met her once I found that I recognized her parents from a past gaming experience online. They're... good people." The Cat Demon admitted, a bit solemnly. "Amy's friend Zach was actually the one who.. um, stopped.. those... humans from..." The teen looked away, shoulder tense, black bangs shadowing his eyes.

Caden was watching him silently, before he stood up and came over. Wrapping his arms around the young Prince, he held him tightly as Damian started to tremble. "I'm so sorry I wasn't able to protect you, Dami." Caden whispered, gray eyes gaining a haunted look. "I promise you, I will do everything in my power to ensure that something like that never happens to you again. Alright?"

Damian nodded, pressing his face into Caden's chest. "O-okay..."

"Are you ready, then?" Caden stepped back, holding onto his godson's shoulders with both hands, looking he young Demon over.

"Yes." Damian nodded sharply.

Caden nodded.

_**:6:00 PM, Earlier That Day:**_

_**-Sitting Room, North Wing, Slytherin Manor, Location Unknown, Human Realm-**_

"Ah, Remus," Tom smiled as he ushered his friend into the room. "Please, have a seat."

"Tom, " Remus Lupin smiled, nodding. "Great to see you again. What's going on?"

Tom Marvolo Riddle sat back in his antique armchair, staring into the fire that roared in the hearth about two meters away. "You remember that Azkaban prison break, don't you?"

The werewolf frowned, nodding. "Well, yes, I do. But what does that have to do with any of our current plans, if I may ask?"

"You may," Tom spoke. "I don't believe we freed our friend Sirius during that raid. I was thinking he should be with us as we take the Light down, don't you? I was saddened to hear he was arrested on such terms, being completely innocent of the crimes accused."

Remus raised an eyebrow. "Actually, Tom, that is the reason I was already on my way here—to the apparating point that leads here, rather—when Lucius contacted me saying you wanted to meet. Point is," Here he paused, reaching into his shabby-looking robes and withdrawing a Daily Prophet. "I thought you might want to see this."

Tom caught the newspaper, and grinned when he read the headline. ""Dangerous Criminal Sirius Black Escapes Azkaban?" Why, that smart little pranking Gryffindor! How did he manage, do you think?" He shot Remus an amused look. "I'll have to commend him for his _bravery_, not to mention his positive cunning plans once he returns to one of our safe houses. Where is he now?"

Remus straightened, looking altogether lost. "That's the problem, actually."

Tom's smile turned into a frown. "Problem? I was not aware that there a problem in all of this..."

The sandy-haired man nodded. "Sirius managed to escape, most likely using his animagus for to slip out of his cell when the dementors were feeding him. The only thing I've heard from his, however, is that he won't be joining our ranks again just yet." Here, he shot the Dark Lord a troubled look. "Tom, he's gone looking for our godson."

"Godson?" Tom whispered, blue eyes wide. "But that's—"

"Yes," The other nodded, looking tired. "Harry Potter."

_**:Midnight:**_

_**-Throne Room, Palace Voidsurfer, Demon Realm-**_

"Damian!" The Demon King Richard jumped up from his seat on his throne, running forward as his son entered to room along with his childhood friend and Commander of his armies. "Son," He spoke, catching the Cat Demon in a tight hug, "are you alright? Caden told me—" Here, he swallowed, hesitating as his voice broke off. "Caden told me what happened. I'm...I'm so sorry..." The handsome Lion Demon buried his face in his son's hair, holding him tightly.

Damian didn't say anything. Actually, he didn't move at all. After a minute or two, however, he slowly let out a breath he'd been holding in, and wrapped his arms around his father's torso. His hands were trembling.

"Dami?" Richard breathed, pulling away, but Damian wouldn't let go, holding onto him tightly.

"D-Daddy..." The small Cat Demon whimpered, clutching onto the King's cloak. His face was buried in his tunic, and Richard could feel tears soaking through.

"Cae..." He sent a apologizing look toward Caden, who nodded seriously, squeezing Damian's shoulder tightly before leaving the room.

Richard let out a breath. "Come here, son." He led Damian over to his throne and sat down, pulling the very small teen into his lap. Damian curled up into a ball, hands moving to clench the front of his shirt. "Mmm," He cried, tears streaming down his face. "Daddy... I... I—"

"Hush." Richard rubbed the boy's back, holding him against his chest tightly. "Dami, hush. It's alright. I'm sorry—I'm so sorry."

It was almost an hour later, that Damian had calmed down—he was now leaning against his father, head resting on the older Lion Demon's broad shoulder. Richard glanced down worriedly at his son, whose face was quite blank. "... I was thinking about sending down someone else to—"

"No."

"Damian, are you sure?" Richard hurried, confused. "Before, you were dead-set against going! Why, now, are you...?"

"I want to learn Mother's type of magicks."

Richard paused. "Lily's magicks? Why?"

"It's... different." Damian shrugged, shifting a little. "I'm going to learn it. I want to know more about my mother, Dad."

Richard was at a loss of what to do. On one hand, his son had been in terrible danger not seven hours before. On the other. Damian wanted to feel closer to his other parent—the one that wasn't there. His mother, Lily Evans nee Potter.

"...Alright." Richard sounded torn, and conflicted in his answer. "Okay. But," He leaned down to press a kiss to his son's forehead. "I want you to promise me to be extremely careful, alright?"

Damian blinked, face still void of any expression. His eyes were a bit glazed, actually, like he was staring off into space. But Richard knew he could hear him.

"Promise me, Damian."

"_Si_. I promise."

"Thank you." Richard rested his chin on his son's head, and Damian closed his eyes once more.

_**:2:00 AM:**_

_**-Damian's Room, Palace Voidsurfer, Demon Realm-**_

Damian, stepped into his chamber, glancing around. He seemed to be coming back to _this_ room—even though he had many others all around the palace. More likely than not, that was due to the fact that he kept Amy's Amusphere—he still refused to refer to it as his own—here.

He walked forward, intent on climbing into bed and going to sleep—that even Caden had agreed on being a good idea. He'd spent the last three hours lying on his father's lap—something he loved to do, even at this age; God knows he was small enough for it. Richard hadn't seemed to mind one bit. In fact, he'd spoken to any visitors over his son's head, and Damian had just lied there, eyes closed as if he was sleeping soundly, while the guests—sometimes a subject requesting an audience, sometimes a knight, warrior, or special operations agent reporting in, and sometimes a Warlord, or an archmage, or even one of the Generals—all looked at him with something akin to complete adoration.

He was just about to kneel onto the soft mattress when a bright color caught his eyes, and he turned to see a folded parchment on his desk—something that certainly hadn't been there when he'd left. He jumped up and walked over to it, inspecting the bundle with a critical eyes. The letter—if that was really what it was—was tied to a wrapped package with a black ribbon and closed with a green, black, and silver wax seal; a skull, with a snake writhing in and out of the eye sockets and mouth—pretty morbid.

Damian threw the package over his shoulder to land on his bed, hoping it contained nothing breakable. When no crash or glass breaking sounded, he went on to break the seal on the parchment.

_Quickfire,_

_I am pleased you accepted our terms. Your demands have been accepted; we are completely fine with teaching your Prince our magicks, if he has the abilities to use them, that is. Attached to this letter you will find a portkey; a magical means of transportation, if you don't know what that is. You touch it, whisper the activation word, and it summons you to whatever location it's been linked to—in this case, my manor. The activation word for this one is "alliance." I must warn you, however, that any attempt to bring along someone else will not succeed. This is just a standard precaution._

_Awaiting your arrival,_

_Lord Voldemort_

Damian smiled, settling back onto his bed and fingering the package, which he now knew held a portkey—of course, he'd already known what it was. Just because he didn't now Wizard Magic didn't mean he didn't know anything about the Wizarding World.

"Well then, my dear little Tom Marvolo Riddle. You're definitely in for one hell of a ride."

_**-Author's Note-**_

_**Mmkay! There's that... And this story still hasn't been beta'd. I'm getting on it, though, so sit tight!**_

_**As always, I love it when all my favorite little munchkins(that'd be you guys, my friends) leave reviews for me to read, but It'd getting a bit ridiculous when all ya put is "Good story, loved it," or "cool," or "awesome," or "Great, keep it coming," or(God forbid) "UPDATE! NOWW!" Like, seriously people. If you're gonna take the time to review, at least give me something to work with! Yes, I'm glad you like the story. Yes, I'm ecstatic that you want more. Yes, all the positive reviews make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside but gosh darn it, people! Thank you, those of you who, when reviewing, take the time to tell me what they liked about the chapter, how they think the story could be improved, what they want to see happen in future chapters, what they didn't like, what I overdid. These could also be phrased in a question, such as "Will they do this when this happens, or will they do this?" See, guys? These type of reviews give me mega awesome ideas for this story!**_

_**With that said, I'd like to thank the following reviewers for actually doing most of the above:**_

_**Stardust of Orion**_

_**PokemonKnight**_

_**horselovr171**_

_**and**_

_**CarnivorousOak**_

_**Okay! Thank, you guys! Kudos for being awesome, and stuff!**_

_**Now, I've got a poll up on my profile(Yes, exciting, I know) that has a list of all my stories that I'm working on right now. This story will be listed on there soon, so go and vote for the story you want to see updated quickly! As of now, the only time that poll will be closed is when I have one up that has a question important to one of the listed stories. Such as "Should Bob wear a pink tutu to the ball, or a purple sundress?" or "Does this story need some urban legend guest star? If so, vote for one of the following:" Things like that.**_

_**Thanks for reading this important, boring, and most likely uninteresting author's note that you probably all have skipped over! Tune in next time for more Damian scented action!**_

_**Thanks!**_

_**~EpikalStorms***_

**Next time, on Sors Daemoniorum: Damian finally meets his new allies, then... makes some more "human" friends? And what is _up_ with this crazed werewolf? Damian soon learns about his _other_ godfathers, and the big, bad, Dark Lord Voldemort's sexuality is held up for debate.**


	5. Glimmer Gives a Ring, Meet the Outlaws

**(Please see Author's Note at the bottom of the chapter for Poll results)**

_**Last time, on **__**Sors Daemoniorum**__**:**_

_Damian lay on his back, on the the silk sheets of his bed, in his room in the Palace. But his mind was taken from that place by the Amusphere placed on his head, and he was soon transferred to Alfheim Online, a world full of fairy-tales come to life—besides his usual, demon existence._

_**. . .**_

_But he didn't know what he was doing. If he wasn't running away by doing this, then what was he doing?_

_**. . .**_

"_Quickfire! You were gone for a long, long, long, long time!"_

_**. . .**_

"_No," Lucius replied, leaning back in his chair. "Actually, the negotiations was a success."_

_**. . .**_

"_Lets go." Kirito said. The friends flitted down beneath the top of the cliff and skimmed over to the other side. Once they were grouped together again, the Spriggan counted down on his fingers from three. As soon as he'd put his ring finger down, they attacked._

_**. . .**_

"_He's still sleeping..."_

"_Nightmare?"_

"_Hey, Quickfire. Wake up."_

_**. . .**_

_Yui had a small frown on her face, and didn't look very convinced, but Quickfire shot her a pleading look, and she didn't say anything._

_**. . .**_

"_The emblem's over some tech panel or something fancy like that—Kirito might know, maybe—and it connects with the nearest source of internet. So, I guess you got it via Amy's Amusphere. As long as you're wearing that in real life when you log in, or have it close, it should show up in your Inventory. I don't know why Hunter invented that, but he's got to have some reason, I guess. He's a pretty intelligent boy, even if he says he's not."_

_**. . .**_

"_It's his fault, anyway." Damian growled out—but it didn't sound angry, really. He sounded more hurt, and confused than mad._

_**. . .**_

"_I'm so sorry I wasn't able to protect you, Dami." Caden whispered, gray eyes gaining a haunted look. "I promise you, I will do everything in my power to ensure that something like that never happens to you again. Alright?"_

_**. . .**_

_Tom caught the newspaper, and grinned when he read the headline. ""Dangerous Criminal Sirius Black Escapes Azkaban?" Why, that smart little pranking Gryffindor!"_

_**. . .**_

"_Tom, he's gone looking for our godson."_

"_Godson?" Tom whispered, blue eyes wide. "But that's—"_

"_Yes," The other nodded, looking tired. "Harry Potter."_

_**. . .**_

"_Well then, my dear little Tom Marvolo Riddle," Damian grinned. "You're definitely in for one hell of a ride."_

_**. . .**_

**Chapter 5**

_**:August 23**__**rd**__**, 7:24 AM:**_

_**-Some Random Place In England, Human Realm-**_

_He's at Hogwarts_.

This was the one thought that ran through the mind of the rough-looking, black haired escapee as he scampered down the footbridge and onto the small, rickety dock on the other side of the great pond—as in a vast ocean. Apparently, Azkaban liked to move around. A lot. Sometimes far away from England. Of course, he hadn't known this until he was a good ways away from the dark, eerie island prison, when he had swum onto a small plot of land known as Long Island, New York. Perhaps the dementors were taking a small vacation? Well, it wasn't his problem. _Well_, it used to be, but not anymore, seeing as he was back in England now...

Which could be good or bad, depending on the way you looked at it.

_**:7:31 AM:**_

_**-Damian's Room, Palace Voidsurfer, Demon Realm-**_

Damian sighed loudly as he flopped down on the stone bench in the Garden of Elois, which was somewhere towards the Westernmost wings of the palace. Nearby, a soft, gold ichor-like waterfall of honey dappled slowly into the oval basin of marble beneath it. He gazed up at the soft teal colored sky. He loved the Demon Realm's sky over any other Realm's. The sky in the Demon Realm changed according to the weather, time of year, and occasion. It had something to do with the demon magic soaked into the air, and the Substance, which was the blanket of magick that threaded through the very Realm's existence. It could be found everywhere, and affected every instance. If the Substance was too heavy(it tended to press down more on the atmosphere when an event important to the History or Future of the Realm was about to occur, or had already occurred), the affects of the pressure either made the occupants depressed, sleepy, or various other symptoms. The Substance had a direct link to the sky—as such, the sky would tend to reflect whatever the Substance was 'feeling', and since the Substance was almost hand in hand with the atmosphere of the inhabitants of the Realm, it worked like a mood ring. If the majority of the demons in the Realm were happy, and the Substance reflected that, the Sky would most likely be a deep, perfect blue. The demons seeing that color would then feel even more assured that they were happy, which would make them a bit more confident in their happiness. It worked in a circle. If the sky was a mood ring reflecting the feelings of the Substance, which reflected the emotions of the people, then the colors of the sky would further have an affect on the people. It was a long,, tedious, and very confusing explanation, but that's how it was—though Damian had a feeling that it would confuse the human's very much—which was a bit funny to him, since it was an accepted and everyday thing in the Demon Realm. Teal meant calm and relaxed, and the color had a soothing affect on Damian, even though he felt that he should be a bit more anxious due to his impending meeting with more humans.

The Prince leaned back, pressing his back into the cool stone of the fountain, and felt a small, uncomfortable tingle work it's way through his shoulder blades.

_It's been quite a while since I've actually flown_. He realized.

He stood up and stretched his arms above his head, reaching for the sky, then intertwined his fingers together, arms still stretching. Once his shoulders, wrists, spine, and fingers popped, he directed his inner magic toward the two matching tattoos on his back.

A silver lightning like energy sparked between his collar bones, traveled down to just above his heat before splitting into two and racing across his illuminated skin, back toward his shoulders. He couldn't see now, but knew that once the energy touched the tattoos, the lightning dissolved and the tattoos glowed a soft neon blue, before they grew, and continued to grow and become more three-dimensional until they resembles real wings, and the glowing blue faded. Once he was sure the light was gone, Damian stretched his wings before taking off into the air, up towards the large teal plain above.

He was having an amazing time flying, just as always, and the opportunity to give his wings a stretch after so long felt so good. For some reason, Damian always felt that much freer in the air, in the sky, even though he was a cat by nature.

Out of the corner of his eye, he thought he caught the glint of a warn fire, but when he turned around, nothing was there. The teen blinked, then frowned, narrowing his eyes at the slight glimmer in the sky about half a mile away from him. The rest of the sky was clear...

"Damian!"

He tilted his head back, folding his wings and falling, twisting in the air until he was diving towards the ground. Just before he reached it, the wings on hi back snapped open, and he glided along the ground until he reached the person who had called out to him. His wings glowed that neon blue again, and shrunk until they were mere tattoos once more, and the lightning crackled back towards his heart giving it a small charge of acknowledgment before the two energies merged together, shooting up again and dissolving back between his collarbone. He landed solidly on his feet in a crouch, then stood up and glared at the shimmering patch of sky again.

"Flying, I see. Aren't you suppose to be meeting with that dark lord this week?" Caden commented, then took in his godson's expression. "What's got you so riled up? Enemies beware, the Kitten Prince has been angered..."

Damian huffed, punching the older demon in the shoulder, his glare softening to a more pleasant look. "Nothing. I just thought I saw something strange. What are you doing over here, may I ask?"

Caden shook his head. "Just wanted to see how you were holding up."

Damian sighed, glancing back up at the glimmer before turning fully to face the Hawk Demon. "Father sent you."

Caden sat down on the bench, patting the spot beside him. The much smaller demon crawled over next to him, and looked up expectantly. "So, yeah, maybe—but that's not _really _the point—well, it is, but I'm worried about you to, you know?" He frowned. "Damian, you know you can talk to me, right?"

The teen in question sat up again, looking over at the honey waterfall—even though he was used to them, it had suddenly become unimaginably fascinating again. Or just a really good distraction, but anyways—

"_Damian_." Caden pressed.

"Yes." The Prince said quietly, staring at the thick, golden, liquid as it dripped down. "I know."

He heard Caden sigh, and a black-gloved hand rested on his shoulder. The older demon didn't say anything else, and they sat in a comfortable silence for the next few minutes, possibly influenced by the teal sky.

Damian bowed his head, looking at the vibrant green beneath his feet. The grass in the Demon Realm was different that the many types of grasses in the Human Realm—if you asked him, the Human Realm was as different from the Demon Realm as a fire was to ice. The Demon Realm only had one surely categorized species of grass. It was always a healthy green color, unless dead—hen it turned black, like charcoal, which was only in the winter. The grass here didn't need water, as it sustained itself with the Substance, as did much of the rest of the nature. When alive(green), the grass was a feather soft, with an almost spongy feeling beneath. It was almost impossible for weeds to hid—or it would be, if the Demon Realm had weeds, which it didn't. Just wild plants that were relatively harmless and popped up at sudden instances, but those were easily taken care of. In the Human realm, Damian had learned that the grass was individual blades, that could cut into your feet. He didn't like it. The grass in the Demon Realm was a similar make up, of course, but the grass was more like individual fluffy feathers—like the down feathers of a baby chick.

Just another thing he loved about home that the Human Realm had a hurtful—in however miniscule a way—counterpart of.

Damian looked up, and noticed that Caden had left quietly while he was thinking about random things. His mind seemed to wonder everywhere, no matter how many times he tries to rein it in. Damian shot up from the bench and searched the sky until his gaze came upon the now-familiar shimmery spot of sky. He called upon his wings again, and took off as soon as the glow died.

This time he made his way straight toward the glimmer—gold, catlike eyes narrowed in suspicion.

When he reached it, he reached forward to try and touch whatever was there.

Fire flashed.

Damian jerked his hand back, hissing. A small, delicate looking burn marred the skin of his right hand, and even as he brought his forearms into an protective X in front of his head to shield himself from the sudden bonfire in the sky, his healing powers had already began to push out the dead skin and webbed a new layer over.

He fell back, diving out of the sky, glancing back and felt his heart speed up a bit as the bonfire disappear, only for the glimmer to follow him down.

He snapped his wings open and shot across the sky, over the entirety of Daescon Uo, feeling more than seeing as it's occupants noticed him, and pointed him out to their friends. He sped up until he was sure he was but a mere blur to them, and swept over the houses, and apartment complexes and mansions and manors until he came upon the Forest of Lights that surrounded the Royal City. At nighttime, when the sky was a deep black void full of nebulae and stars and comet paths, the Forest's trees and plants would light up with their own natural glow, and a special type of seed that belongs to the Konekti tree, of which their were only three, would fly out into the air and glow a brilliant light. Most never saw them directly, as they blended into the stars, but it was said that if you managed to actually catch a seed, you would be connected to the heart of the realm—a legendary honor for any demon.

He flew deep into the forest, flipping around and expertly dodging the black colored trees, sorĉado trees, which had blood red leaved and silvery fruit that sparked with lightening when they were cracked open. But every time her glanced back, the glimmer still followed him. Except, now it was a fire again.

Suddenly, Damian hit something solid, and he heard a terribly crack. His wings went into default, and disappeared without the glow, which meant that the magic he'd provided for their existence had wavered in support, and it was now spread into the air around him to be collected later. He was about eleven =feet in the air still, and fell hard.

Groaning, Damian opened his eyes to find the fire directly in front of him. He gulped, then took a breath and examined it closer once it made no more moves to attack. To his astonishment, it was actually a bird.

"You are burning." He politely pointed out. The beautiful bird shot him a incredulous look that said "no, really?" and the fire dimmed. It took him a while to realize that the fire was actually gone, and that the beautiful shimmering flames he thought were still their were actual the bird's feathers.

Damian blinked, then thought back, trying to see if he knew what was before him.

"Ah..." He choked. "You are a phoenix. A firebird."

The phoenix trilled softly, and Damian felt the musical sound calm him down a bit. He reached out his arm, and the firebird gently settled onto it's offered perch. As it touched him, Damian flinched, almost expecting to be burned once again. The phoenix cocked it's head, before sending him an apologetic look—or as apologetic as a bird could be. It squeezed it eyes shut, and shifted closer until it could lay it's head against his. He felt a slight stinging sensation go through a certain part of his skull, and it died down. The phoenix apparently had finished whatever it had been doing, since it then hopped off his arm and settled on a nearby branch, staring at him.

Damian lifted his hand to his head, and flitted his fingers over where the phoenix had touched. He felt something warm, and wet—that was thick, but there was also something else, a cold wetness that seemed to consume the warmth even as he touched it. He brought his hand in front of his face, and saw it covered in blood—he must have hit his head a bit too hard on the tree he'd run into—, yet the red lifeblood was being devoured by another substance. He looked closer and realized it was water...

"Your tears?" He asked the phoenix, and as the bird trilled an affirmative, smiled. "Thanks."

He reached overhead to pull a leaf of one of the sorĉado trees, and wiped it over his newly-healed wound(he would've let it heal with his own magic, but the phoenix's was a bit faster, it seemed). The red leaved were almost like sponges, and soaked up the liquid that was starting to trail down the side of his face. He threw the leaf to the ground once he was dry, and sent a strange look toward the phoenix. "Now, how did you get in this realm?" He asked it. "Are you not a rare magical creature of the Human's?"

The phoenix seemed to shake it head, but apparently not in answer to his question. Instead, it held out a talon, and Damian looked down to see a ring glinting on it.

He caught in in his open palm, and examined it curiously. He rolled it around in is fingered for a moment, before going to put it on—put the phoenix didn't want that. It was burning again.

"Ah!" Damian yelped. "Ah-okay! Okay! No wearing it, I see!"

The phoenix's flames died, and it trilled happily. It shot him a stern look, looked back at the ring, then looked him in the face again. As it burst into flames before disappearing, Damian had a slight feeling that the ring was...a bit important. He didn't know _why_ this was, but one did not ignore something one was given to by a phoenix—however strange it was for the phoenix to actually _be_ there.

"Huh..." The Prince stared down at the simple golden ring in his hand—turning it over a few times, he noticed it had a crest carved into it, and it seemed to be very old. "Strange.."

_**:8:23 AM:**_

_**-Headmaster's Office, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Scotland, Human Realm-**_

Albus glared down at the piece of parchment that had settled on his desk with furious annoyance. If he wanted to be rid of that irritating bug, Voldemort, then he needed the real harry Potter, as the Longbottom boy was nearly squib, and the youngest Weasley was nowhere near powerful enough for his plans. But the young Potter was nowhere to be found. He'd vanished.

Albus looked out the window with a scowl, longing for the soothing songs of his familiar—but Fawkes was away, hunting or something.

He had to get that boy back. Somehow, but he _had_ to. Or all these years, almost two whole decades of planning would all be for nothing.

_**:The Next Day, 6:11 AM:**_

_**-Damian's Room #3, Southeastern Wing, Palace Voidsurfer, Demon Realm-**_

Damian took a deep breath, before reaching up and tugging on the hood of Hunter's coat. The coat was pretty awesome, he'd discovered. The hood was styled after the uniforms of the assassins from the popular video game, Assassin's Creed.

He traced his fingers over the silvery emblem on the shoulder before turning toward his desk, where the portkey rested. As the Magical Human's had asked for aid from the Demon's, and not the other way around, he could botch this mission up as much as he wanted, and the Human's really couldn't do anything but try to keep themselves in his favor, in hoped that his race would continue to be allied with them. With that thought in mind, he felt a little better about all this. He was almost untouchable, from the "Dark," at least. Nothing said about the "Light," but that wasn't important right now. He was an unknown element to these people. They'd be cautious around him—and he could do whatever he wanted as long as He didn't kill any of his allies.

"Sounds good." He nodded to himself. Walking over toward the desk, he jerked open the drawer that held the box containing Amy's Amusphere. With a tap of his middle finger, and a whispered "_sombreadas_," the small metal box turned completely black, as if it had been dipped in ink. Turning, he slid the drawer closed with his foot and walked over toward the ed, placing the box neatly in the black case of stainless steel, which held some other important items, and room for more—vials of poison, serums, files and contracts he had to work on and didn't have the time to come back for later, such things like this.

He shut the case with a snap, locking it with a quick "_ŝlosi al ĉiuj, malfermu nur por mi_." This was Demon Magic, which would lock the case to everyone but him—which meant only he could open it. After all, most of those files and papers were classified, for Royal eyes only, and he wouldn't want those _fragile_ humans to hurt himself on his spare daggers, or accidentally take one of his rather lethal poisons. No, that would be _terrible_...

Turning back to the desk, Damian walked over to the portkey and, before he could change his mind, grabbed the spelled silver locket.

"Alliance."

_**:6:00 AM:**_

_**-Slytherin Manor, Somewhere In The Human Realm-**_

Remus paced nervously next to the chair Tom was sitting in. The other Death Eaters(as they had been dubbed by the media—due to Dumbledore's influence, of course) stood around aimlessly wandering the room, save fore Lucius and Severus, who stood closer to Tom. They were all awaiting the arrival of the mysterious Quickfire.

One of the guards they left outside on lookout duty came rushing into the room, out of breath, and everyone looked on, suddenly interested in what was going on.

"Well?"

"It's—Quickfire is here, sir!"

"Yes," Tom nodded sharply. "Bring him in."

A few minutes later, the door opened once again and a small, lithe, hooded figure entered. They all looked toward Tom.

"Hello," Tom said pleasantly to the stranger. "You must be Quickfire."

Quickfire remained silent for a moment or two, before nodding. "Yes. You are Tom Marvolo Riddle."

Tom shifted, almost nervously, along with many of the others in the room. So the Demon was well informed after all. "Yes, I am."

Quickfire observed them, as they delved into an awkward silence. Tom really didn't know where to go from there, but it seemed that the present Demon decided fro him. Quickfire pulled down his hood and grinned at them. "Well, then. I assume you wish to finalize the alliance, no? _Jes, mi supozas. _I have brought the papers necessary for the agreement. Father almost had second thought about it, however, so I suggest you lay low for a while longer."

Tom and his friends(i.e followers) had been nodding in agreement for the length of his small speech, but were puzzled at the end.

"Father?" Tom asked.

Quickfire smiled. "Yes. My Father. His Majesty Richard Voidsurfer, King of the _Demonoj_."

Tom and the rest blanched, and Lucius paled dramatically. "You're—you're the Prince?!"

Quickfire blinked up at them. "_Jes_. _Si_."

Tom stood up and bowed. "M-My apologies, your Majesty. I was unaware."

"_Sed kompreneble._" the Prince spoke. "But of course."

He approached the table and set the steel case he'd been hugging to his chest down with a loud clank. "_Malfermi_."

The case opened with a sharp his, and the Prince took out a folder, before whispering again. "_Fermi_." The case snapped shut like the jaws of a crocodile.

Soon, Tom had signed the contract that bound him and his followers to the agreement, and Quickfire nodded. The contract disappeared with a flip of his hand. "My name," He told them, "is Damien Voidsurfer."

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Prince Damian." Tom greeted.

"And you." Damian agreed. "Now that the contract had been signed, I wish to know any further information on this subject."

So they told him everything Lucius had kept from him in the initial negotiations. Damian was smart, quick to the point, and easy to agree with, asking questions at all the correct times, so the intel giving was over a bit quicker than they thought.

The humans shivered a bit when those sharp golden eyes that seemed to glow swept over them, observing them, analyzing them. They came to rest on Severus Snape, however, and did not leave. Severus squirmed under the gaze of the Demon Prince, gulping nervously, wondering why he was being stared at so intensely. Finally, Damian straightened. "_Kia surprizo_. What a surprise to see you here. I know you."

Severus blinked, and the others looked at each other, surprised. "Y-You do?" The potion's Master cursed himself for the stutter. He did not stutter! Even when talking to a Prince of the Demons...

"_Jes_, indeed. But you do not know me."

"Eurm..." Severus tilted his head. "How do you know me, may I ask?"

"You were good friends with my mother, of course."

Now Tom and the others looked _very_ interested, and Severus was flabbergasted. "I was?!"

"_Jes_. My mother. Lillian Potter nee Evans."

_This_, of course, was what shocked them to their cores.

Severus didn't speak for a few more minutes. "W-Wait.. Then.. J-_James _Potter i-is the..."

Damian shook his head, bemused. "Mmm, no. He is not the King. He was my step-father."

Severus sat down with a thump.

Tom tilted his head, a slight frown on his handsome face. "But Lily Potter was your birth mother. So..."

Damian sent him a small smile, nodding. "Lily and James could not have a child together—and every male of the Royal family is half human, since only a Demon with human blood can ascend the throne. My Father went to Lily with a proposition. She accepted. I was born. Then given an alias that my step-father came up with. I was to live in the human world until my Father called upon me. Sadly, my mother and step=father were murdered, so I was taken home much sooner than expected."

"I knew he smelled familiar..." Remus whispered, staring at the Cat-demon with a strange look.

"But you look nothing like James Potter, and everyone knows Harry Potter looked like James Potter... It doesn't add up!" One of the Death Eaters blurted, before shrinking back sheepishly when Tom sent a glare in their direction.

"That was a _glamour_. Like this; _Alportu miajn preteksto reen al mi_!"

He looked changed, like a metamorphmagus's would. Soon, Severus found himself staring at an exact replica of his school-years rival.

"_Bloody hell_..." He heard someone whisper behind him. Tom was a bit to surprised to send them one of his famous glared.

"A good disguise, no?" The teenage James smiled, then said, "_La nebulo de nia vizio estos ekzilita, lasu la vera formo elvenu por ĉiuj vidi. _**Reveal!**" This spell was a bit more complicated than other demon magicks.

Soon, they were looking at Damian again. The sixteen year old Demon Prince yawned, and it was then that they all noticed how... adorable this kid was. Tom shifted in his chair uncomfortably, knowing that everyone else in the room was having similar difficulty in trying to resist the urge to jump up and hug the teen.

Tom gazed at Damian for a minute, taking in the characteristics that Lucius had told him of. Cat ears, the kitten-like eyes, and he thought he saw a hint of sharper-than-human teeth when the child had grinned at them. Thanks to Lucius, he knew that there was also a black tail hidden beneath that black coat, and he saw, upon closer inspection, that Damian's fingernails were black, longer than normally kept, and sharpened into slightly curled points.

He looked up. "Ah—yes. Of course. Thanorm," He turned to one of his closer friends, Thano Nott. "Please take our guest to his suite."

"Yes." That was Thano. Straight to the point and simple. A quiet guy, really.

After Thano had led Damian out of the room, everyone collapsed onto the chairs and couched, shocked.

"Did _not_ see that one coming." Remus confided. They all agreed, of course.

_**:8:00 AM:**_

_**-Damian's New Room, Slytherin Manor, Somewhere In The Human realm-**_

After Nott left, Damian collapsed onto the bed, feeling exhausted. The portkey had had a strange effect on him, making him feel a bit tired. He had a feeling that that had to do with the fact that he hadn't actually slept the past two nights. He was looking forward to it... Hopefully no nightmares would come.

But first, he needed to think. He'd finally met Tom Riddle, and it was a nice surprise to get to meet Snape as well. He knew his mother had been good friends with him. What he hadn't expected was to see Remus Lupin the werewolf. He'd done a quick scan of the rooms occupant's thoughts, just skimmed along the surface to see if there were any threats, and had been a bit startled to discover that he had two other godfathers. That Remus fellow, who's look at him with a slightly creepy look of longing, and another—Sirius Black. For some reason, Damian felt there was a mysterious and intriguing story behind that name, and that many of the facts were coming to light recently. He'd have to look into that subject later.

Now was the time to sleep. The time to fend off nightmares, the time to rest.

_**-Author's Note-**_

_**Yes, I know it's shorted than the others. Do I care? Mmm, not really... Heh, sorry. I've been caught up in schoolwork. I homeschool myself, at home alone. I've failed all but one of my classes (not included PE, of course, so I have to start them over...**_

_**Anyway, I was a bit surprised at the results of the poll I had up. Apparently, Damian is Slytherin material. I'd have thought he'd be more of a Hufflepuff, but it's all you guys! Honestly, I found it funny that Gryffindor had only one vote, as apposed to Slytherin's impressive 41 votes, but I suppose it can't be helped. After all, Damian isn't Harry anymore ^ ^**_

_**Since Slytherin was the most voted for, I'm having a bit of trouble decided if I should go with the most voted for option that had Damian going to Hogwarts in it, or just go with the winning choice below Slytherin, and somehow work Damian being Slytherin in that somehow. Ah, I'll work it out.**_

_**I was pretty excited to see I had five more reviews, but I kinda-maybe-sort of cried a bit when I realized that they, more or less, said the EXACT same things—which is kinda hard to do, seeing as they were all reviews from different people. Meeehh. You guys... *shakes head***_

_**I HAVE A QUESTION FOR YOU ALL! It is in no relevance to this story, I don't think. Just something fun, I guess, and I wanted to do it. **_

_**Question:**_

_**Damian Voidsurfer vs. Blair the cat(Soul eater)**_

_**Who would win?**_

_**We must take into account that Blair's...charms...don't really work that well on Dami, since he's positively innocent. So it begs to question. Who would win?**_

_**Please put in your own vote at the end of your review, and I will tally up the votes at the end of the next chapter and give you a new question.**_

_**That's just to spice things up for ya. I got kinda bored :\**_

_**ANYWAY! I love you all, review... ^ ^**_

_**~EpikalStorm***_

**Next time, on Sors Daemoniorum: Tom and his friends delve deeper into the mystery that is Damian, and discover a few surprising facts along the way. Damian's nightmares come to light, and things get a little sketchy when he realizes that they aren't about the past trauma, but of the future. Is this a sign? He sure hopes not.**


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